Black Velvet
by EvilCat
Summary: Well, you meet the characters, it's really very interesting, you'll find out what the title means later in the fic...
1. Chapter 01

NO TITLE AS OF NOW  
  
A/N - Wow! Finally remembered to post this.. hee hee hee... anyways, this is co-written by a   
friend of mine who I like to refer to as Little Miss Co-Author... I KNOW she doesn't like that,   
so that's why I do... E.A.B., Liz Shultz, Liz B, blah blah blah.. WHATEVER... this 'little' fic   
will focus on Draco (the Bouncing Ferret!), so if you don't like Draco, then... keep reading, it   
gets pretty interesting. This is, in fact, the only non-humor fic that I've co-written with Liz that   
I've actually had the patience to finish. She also kept my mind on track, if I would have written   
this by myself, it would have had dragons and gryphons (griffons, griffens) and all sorts of good   
stuff.. and a basilisk is a type of dragon, not a snake... I do my research, I'm currently   
obsessed with dragons and my demonic side has been showing all too much... I'm currently   
wearing ALL black... (black shirt, pants, socks, shoes, necklace, earrings... I have a problem)   
SO NYAHAHAHAHAHA!  
  
A/D - I own Rhea (and any other new characters... I think Justin might own Justin, but I'm not   
sure... Justin, do you own yourself or do I own you? Hee hee hee...), J.K.R. owns Draco   
(*pouts*) and Harry and any other character that I don't own.. I've come to the conclusion that   
I own Justin (sorry Justin, I have the right to say that.. actually.. yeah, but Liz does, too)  
  
Rhea Karasa looked out the window and sighed. She looked out over the ocean; she could see   
some land in the distance.  
  
She was going to England again, but it was against her will. She would rather stay in America,   
with her friends. Her father was making her come back to him.  
  
"Ugh. Hogwarts, is it? Well, it shouldn't be all THAT bad," she said to herself.  
  
"Yeah, at least you have someone to talk to, although you don't have much to say, do you?"   
Justin asked her. He smoothed back his black hair, his hazel eyes looking at the seat in front of   
him.  
  
"Eh? Sorry, I forgot you were here!" Rhea said, embarrassed. She had been thinking about why   
she was going to Hogwarts in the first place.  
  
She sat back against the seat and closed her eyes. She was so tired; her back was aching from   
sitting forward in the plane that long. Stupid Muggle inventions. Unfortunately, she couldn't   
aparate under age, so she was stuck here with one of her friends. Bastet, her other friend, was   
coming later in the year. Around December, probably.  
  
She smiled, at least she had someone with her. He might not be reliable, but he was nice   
enough. He would probably be stuck in Ravenclaw. She considered herself a Gryffindor, braver   
than most of her friends, but not very dedicated to her school work.  
  
"What are you thinking about?" he pried.  
  
"Huh?" she snapped awake.  
  
"Go back to sleep, never mind."  
  
She went back to looking out her window. It was getting darker, but they would be in England   
any minute now. They would be 5th years, but would be sorted with the little 1st years. A few   
weeks of summer left. They didn't have much time to get supplies, but they would be staying at   
the Leaky Cauldron, which led to Diagon Alley.  
  
"Where is King's Cross?" she asked suddenly.  
  
"What? Oh, King's Cross... it should be close to where we're staying."  
  
"Ok, I guess we can ask when we get there," said Rhea, drifting off to sleep.  
  
  
  
Justin shook Rhea awake around 1 in the morning. She woke up and looked out her window   
instinctively. They had landed, and it was pouring down rain. She could've smacked herself; she   
didn't have an umbrella, or a coat.  
  
"Don't worry, I have an umbrella," he told her. Justin had a knack for reading what people were   
thinking.  
  
"Ok," she said, not quite listening to what he was saying. They got off the plane and trudged into   
the airport to get their bags. A ministry member would be waiting for them there, to get them   
where they needed to go.  
  
They picked up their bags and looked around for whoever would be picking them up. Justin   
spotted him.  
  
"Over there, the one in the black robes," he pointed out.  
  
Rhea looked him over, sensing something familiar about him. It hit her then. It had to be Lucius   
Malfoy. She didn't really hate him, more just plain scared of him. It had to be those eyes, they   
were steel gray, and that was enough to give anyone the creeps.  
  
"We have to travel with HIM? Of all people..." she trailed off.  
  
"What's wrong with him, he's just a creepy rich guy," he grinned at her.  
  
"Don't look at me like that," she complained before slinking over to Mr. Malfoy, Justin following   
close behind.  
  
Mr. Malfoy didn't say anything; it didn't even look like he acknowledged their presence when   
they went up to him. He just walked off and signaled for them to follow him.  
  
"He shouldn't go so fast, we have to carry all of this junk," Justin complained.  
  
Rhea smirked at him, she wasn't having any trouble at all, but Justin had been the one bragging   
about how much stronger he was than her.  
  
They got in the back seat of the Ministry car, and they drove off through the rain.  
  
  
  
Rhea trudged tiredly up the stairs of the Leaky Cauldron, too tired to notice anything. Justin's   
room was down the hall from hers, but she really could care less at the moment.  
  
She entered her room and took her wand out of her bags. She magicked everything out of its   
place and put it in her room. She moved a few things around to make it feel like home.  
  
"Just missing one thing, now," she said, satisfied. She opened up a cage containing a large cream   
& gray cat with sparkling blue eyes.  
  
"C'mere, Apollo," said Rhea, who was lying on her bed. Apollo was a Siamese, purebred, and   
very intelligent. He undid the lock on her owl's cage, letting him fly free, and then sprang onto   
the bed.  
  
Justin knocked on the door then, and let himself in.  
  
"Wait for my answer before you open the door," she scolded him.  
  
"Sorry, it's habit. I see you've turned your room into a miniature forest already," he said, not   
surprised. She had vines creeping on the walls and pots of exotic flowers and trees placed   
around. A collection of carved, wooden animals dotted the furniture, a very majestic wolf statue   
stood on the floor near the bedstand, its green eyes seemingly looking at a flower with a blue   
morpho butterfly on it.  
  
"Yes, nice isn't it? I don't know how I'll survive at Hogwarts," she answered dryly.  
  
"That's a real butterfly?"  
  
"Of course it is, if it were a statue it wouldn't be moving, would it?"  
  
"You never had them in your room at home"  
  
"You didn't notice them, did you?"  
  
"I guess not..."  
  
"Well, I'm going to go to sleep, I'm exhausted."  
  
"Yea, well, goodnight, then." He smiled and closed the door behind him.  
  
"Brizo, do you wanna go out and fly, now?" she turned her attention to her eagle owl, who was   
perched on a branch of a larger tree.  
  
Brizo hooted in response and flew over to the window. She followed, attaching a note to Harry   
Potter on his leg. Rhea opened the window, and Brizo flew away.  
  
"Bring me back something, would you?" she called out, then turned to her wardrobe to change   
into her nightclothes. "I might as well send him something, I have nothing better to do!" She   
explained to Apollo, who had tried to rip the letter to shreds. It was true, too. Her mother had   
known the Potter family when she was young, and she had seen pictures of Harry once or twice   
in her life, but she didn't really remember him.  
  
After that was taken care of, she fell onto her bed. Apollo was in a playful mood, and was   
playing with her long, light brown hair.  
  
"Stop that, you're going to end up tangling it up more than it needs to be!"  
Rhea turned off the light and pulled up the covers, her cat sleeping beside her.   
  
Meanwhile, Harry Potter was in his bed, doing his homework and waiting for Hedwig to come   
back with a letter. Not only did she come back with a few letters, but a few owls and some   
packages.  
  
He looked at his clock. He had been 15 for 9 minutes. He yawned and looked at the owls   
around him. He noticed a new one, a large eagle owl with a letter who was standing next to   
Hedwig.  
  
"And who is this?" he asked his owl, then walked over to it. Brizo screeched at him, and   
jumped away.  
  
"You have a letter for me, you should let me have it, you know." He studied the owl, watching   
its green eyes dart about the room. Brizo considered the fact for a moment, and held out his leg,   
not wanting to fail his owner.  
  
Harry took the letter off its leg gently. Brizo hooted in response, and stayed for a reply. Harry   
looked at the owl curiously and opened the letter up.  
  
Dear Harry,  
You don't know me yet, so my owl, Brizo, might be a bit difficult with you. He's not a   
big fan of strangers. Anyways, I'm a transfer student from the U.S. I'm the same year as you,   
and will be sorted with the 1st years when school starts, along with my friend, Justin. I just   
wanted to say Happy Birthday. You might meet me when you get your school supplies; I'm   
staying at the Leaky Cauldron. So, Happy Birthday! Oh, and Bwa ha ha ha! Just felt like acting   
evil there for a moment, I'll probably be wearing all black and hanging around Diagon Alley   
most of the time, so you'll be able to spot me easily.  
- Rhea  
- Black Velvet  
  
"That's odd, no one has come from another school before," he said, puzzled. He decided to   
write back to her, since her owl was waiting ever so patiently. "I wonder what she means by Black Velvet..."  
  
Rhea,  
Thank you for writing to me. No one ever does except for my close friends. I'll meet   
you in Diagon Alley around 2:00 PM next Saturday, if that's OK with your schedule. Ron and   
Hermione, my friends, will be with me. How about near Flourish and Blotts?  
Looking forward to meeting you,  
Harry Potter  
  
  
He read the letter over and attached it to Brizo's leg, which was outstretched, waiting for the   
letter. After it was attached, he abruptly took flight and flew out the window.  
  
Brizo was quick on duty; he was a fast owl, probably with racing blood in him. So, naturally, he   
arrived back within 10 minutes. Rhea was waiting for him, sitting in the dark. Her blue eyes   
looked gray without light.   
  
She turned her bedstand light on, and read the letter she got in response. She smiled, the time   
was perfect, she would be there. Rhea had been raised mainly in the U.S., so she didn't have an   
English accent. She did remember Diagon Alley, though.  
  
"So," she thought, "the famous Harry Potter wants to meet me? Great, Justin can tag along with   
me. I'm sure they won't mind."  
  
Rhea smirked at the thought of what Justin would say when she told him that Harry Potter   
wanted to meet her. She pulled up the covers and went to sleep.  
  
***  
  
A/N - So, how'd you like it so far? You'll find out more about Rhea's family (her good for   
nothing father, her mother) in the parts to come later... I have them written, but not posted   
because I want some feedback first and decided that was a good place to leave off... also, I   
have this thing about now beta reading my own fics, so if anyone would like to be a beta   
reader? R/R, tell me about any real noticeable grammer/spelling errors, and I know my   
sentences are sometimes really short or really long, that how they're supposed to be... and I   
was meant to be a humor writer, there is much comic relief in this fic...  
  
A/D - I did this already... but I own Nightshade the Raven, he's sitting on my desk and looking   
like a raven should... hee hee hee.. I think I'm insane! BTW... this is irrelevant, but I was   
discussing opening sentences with my Power of the Pen team (a writing group, 6 people are   
chosen to be in a writing team and go around and compete against different schools in district,   
regional, and state competitions), and the prompt was "It was an addiction" and someone   
started it out badly and I had a comment (the sentence was about drugs), and it was "Well, if   
you could make it into something interesting, like maybe if the character did drugs and turned   
into a giant alien monster thing, it would get good points!" and I had just told her that my parents   
thought I needed a psychiatrist because we were talking about a different prompt, and she said   
"I think your parents were right..." and she laughed, then later I said for a different prompt,   
"But wouldn't it be cool if the main character could turn into an owl?" and everyone asked   
where that came from and there was a picture of an owl on the wall and... ok, I'll just shut up   
now because you really don't care, do you?  



	2. Chapter 02

BLACK VELVET – PART 2

CO-WRITTEN BY: EvilCat and E.A.B.

----------

A/N – Weeeee!!! Time for another installment of "Black Velvet!" This part is pretty long, it includes Rhea's sorting, Rhea's hatred for Draco… more and more things involving Rhea… and Draco… And… I guess that's all. Draco is my favorite character, and the first draft I wrote of this made Draco seem so… nice. So I changed a few things around and tried to make him seem more like he really hated her. Near the end of this part, he's really nice, though, because his life is kinda on the line. Remember this; Rhea's temper takes her over sometimes. So remember that… it will help you understand what's happening near the end of this part with our old pal Voldemort… I would like to thank the reviewers! Thank you reviewers! And no, this is not a daughter-of-Voldemort + Harry fic… Rhea isn't too fond of Harry, although she may act nice to him, she really doesn't find anything too intriguing about him… I wasn't sure whether to rate the PG or G… so I rated it PG just in case. This fic is almost completed on my hard drive, but I'm gonna make you WAIT! So ha ha ha ha ha! 

A/D – I own Rhea, Liz owns some of the little details and important events, I own some little details and the basic plot line and some important events. I made up the plot line! MINE!!! If it were up to Liz, Draco would die. She's tried that more times than I can count. All regular HP characters belong to the mighty J.K.R!!! Well, read on!

----------

The alarm clock rang. Well, it wasn't really an alarm clock, and it didn't really ring, but it did wake her up. Apollo nudged her with his cold, gray nose again.

"I'm up, don't worry!" she told him. She walked over to her mirror, which had ivy winding its way up the side. Her hair wasn't as messy as it usually was in the morning. She changed into a tank-top and some jean-shorts. She strolled into the bathroom, brushed her teeth, then brushed through her hair, and put it up. Sure, she looked like a tom-boy when she did that, but she could care less.

She walked over to her cat again. It was the crack of dawn in London. She looked at a picture of the lake. The sun hadn't risen in Ohio, yet. The lake was navy blue, large storm clouds billowed above it. Her friends would be in store for lots of rain when they woke up. The sky was clear where she was staying.

At this point, a small white owl flew in. He carried an envelope of thick parchment. Rhea walked over to it and took the envelope away. Brizo naturally hooted angrily at the owl that sat on her bed from his perch on the tree. 

She opened the envelope and pulled out a few slips of paper. A permission slip for Hogsmeade, a list of school supplies, and a note from the Headmaster about her sorting, the houses, and the train. All the homework she needed to do was included, written by the teachers.

"Well, the potions master seems to be thrilled about me, now doesn't he?" she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Doesn't seem like a very pleasant fellow, does he?" Justin asked.

"Don't sneak into my room!"

"Sorry, you left the door open.."

"You know just as well as I do that it was closed," she snapped, her light blue eyes narrowed.

"Ok, ok!" he backed out the door and scampered away.

Rhea smiled and gave the little owl a treat before it flew away. Brizo bristled his feathers and hooted angrily at her. Apollo meowed loudly for attention and stretched out across the bed. They were always fighting for attention. She walked over to Brizo, and opened the window for him. He hooted and flew out.

She smiled as he flew away, then quickly ran down the steps, awaiting breakfast. She was starved, she hadn't had dinner the night before. Apollo followed her, like usual. She ordered scrambled eggs and cinnamon toast.

Tom made her breakfast quickly, and it was very good. Well, comparing to what she usually had to eat.

She and Justin decided to explore Diagon Alley that day. It passed quickly for them, and before they knew it, it was dark. So they retired for the night.

Rhea woke up that morning with a new burst of energy. It was Saturday, so she would need it. She looked at the clock, it was 12:07 PM, she had waken up late, like usual. Apollo was being his usual sleepy self, so he didn't serve much as an alarm clock today.

She jumped out of bed, put on some of her nicer Muggle clothes, a tank-top and some of her nicer jean-shorts. She decided to leave her hair down for today, it usually looked better that way.

Rhea ran down the stairs and almost tripped over Apollo, who was weaving about her legs. She took out her wand; it was Maple, 13½ in, sturdy. She tapped the brick in the wall, and entered Diagon Alley, not bothering to eat breakfast, like usual. 

Apollo followed her, like he normally did. She checked her watch, it was 1:58 PM. 2 minutes, boy it took her a long time to get ready today, or maybe it was the stubbornness of her owl. So, she headed off for Flourish and Blotts, which wasn't far away. She sat down near a tree, and looked around for who she was supposed to meet.

She spotted Justin heading quickly over. Rhea turned away, noticing a group of 3 standing a few feet away. She grabbed Justin's arm and dragged him over to Harry Potter's little group.

"Hey!" Rhea said, trying to be a little too cheery. 

"Er.. hi," said a boy who she figured must be Ron.

"Excuse her, she's acting a bit like a drunken idiot this morning," Justin apologized. He was rewarded with a kick in the shins from Rhea.

"I may be a drunken idiot, but that's no reason to voice it out to the whole world.. or something like that," she said, confused.

"Yeah, well, we're supposed to meet someone here, so could you excuse us?" Hermione pointed out in her usual tone.

"Yeah, well, I'm supposed to meet you here, too, so bye-bye."

"Ummm.. wouldn't that mean that you're supposed to meet us? So therefore, you should stay here."

"Ok, sure, whatever."

"Rhea?" asked Harry.

"Huh?"

"Oh, ok, just making sure it was really you, your letter seemed more… refined."

"Of course, in her letters, she always seems more refined, it's when you meet her that she's really crazy!" Justin sniggered under his breath.

"Don't make me sing, Justin…" she trailed off.

"Oy, she's threatening me, now."

"Ok, why don't we all just sit down and have a nice little conversation?" Ron asked.

"Sure."

"So, how are you little people today?" she asked.

"You've met an insane one, Harry," commented Fred, strolling in.

"Like us, you know, I kinda like her now," continued George.

"Can you leave me alone, I'm old enough to look after myself," Ron complained. At this point, Rhea sniggered.

"Maybe I shouldn't act so insane," she commented, "I'm confusing myself."

"Yes, try and act more refined, would you?" Justin pleaded.

"Fine, I shall attempt to do so. But what is normal? Nobody is truly normal, so therefore, we are all weird. But in that sense, if we're all weird, then we're all normal, now aren't we?"

"I guess in a sense, if you think of it that way," said Fred.

"But we prefer to consider ourselves weird, so that is why we have normal," she continued.

"Hey, Potter, what are you doing here? Talking to some filthy mudblood first years again?" Draco cut in.

"Hey, where did you come from?" Rhea asked confused, again.

"Rhea, cut it out!" Justin hissed. At this point, Rhea realized what Draco had been saying.

"MUDBLOOD?! MUDBLOOD?! Who are you to call mudblood, and besides, who are you to call me a 1st year? AND who are you to insult muggle-borns in the first place?!" She screeched at him.

Draco sneered at her, but looked a little taken back by her comments. "Oh, so what year ARE you two? And what is that silly accent you have? It sounds absolutely horrible."

"For your information, I'm a 5th year by your terms, and I'm American, much better than you British people, no offense to anyone else here." She hissed at him.

"And you are a muggle-born, I suppose?" he commented, looking at her clothes.

"Nope, pure-blood, just like you, Malfoy," she scowled at him.

"And how do you know my name?"

"I have my ways, I'm not stupid, you know."

"I'm not going to waste my time on talking to idiots such as yourselves," he said with an edge of hatred in his voice.

"Gee, that was fun!" Ron said unenthusiastically.

"Yes, wasn't it? Draco can be a pain sometimes, can't he?" she smiled.

"A pain? JUST a pain? He's more than a pain!"

"Well, if my friend was here, he wouldn't just be slinking away like that, he'd be pretty scratched up," Rhea commented again.

"Yes, Bastet is very violent against the Malfoy family, isn't she?" Justin recalled.

"I dunno if it would be just them, but all supporters of Voldemort," she corrected.

"Don't say that name!" Ron complained, "You're just as bad as Harry is!"

"Tee hee, isn't that thrilling?" she replied sarcastically.

"Well, we haven't got all day to shop for our supplies, do we? Let's get started!" Hermione cut in.

"Sure, why not?" Rhea got up, and spent the rest of the day shopping with Harry and his little friends. She was taking Care of Magical Creatures and Divination as her optional classes. 

"Wouldn't it be great if Potions was an optional class?" Harry asked absentmindedly.

"Yea, the potions master seems thrilled to have to be the one to write out my homework," Rhea answered him, taking a bag full of advanced potions ingredients.

"Leeches? Yeck.." commented Justin, who was looking through the supplies.

"Spiders…" Ron shivered.

"Yep, spiders, thrilling, isn't it?" she said sarcastically, holding one up.

"What's next?" Hermione checked her list. "We have books, potions ingredients, and new robes."

"We need something to eat," Justin said brightly.

"That'll work, I haven't had anything to eat all day." Rhea cut in.

"You were that excited to meet us?" Ron asked.

"No, I hardly ever eat breakfast," she answered him, and led them away to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch.

After they bought the rest of their supplies, they spent the rest of the day looking at brooms & Quidditch supplies at the request of Harry ("I only get to come here once!" He complained).

Rhea admired a new broom, but unfortunately didn't have enough money on her to buy it. Well, she did, but she still had a week until school started, and she needed to buy food and pay for her room.

At the end of the day, they all trudged up to her room. And, they all tripped over Apollo at least once on the stairs.

"Crookshanks never does that, he at least knows better than to weave between your legs when you're walking up stairs," Hermione was quick to complain. Apollo hissed at her indignantly.

"He knows what you're saying, and if he disagrees, he'll make his opinion known," Rhea said. Apollo curled his tail around her leg and meowed at her. "And he needs his food now, too."

After Apollo was all fed and happy, Rhea stretched out on her bed, admiring a butterfly, which had landed on her hand.

"Your room looks like a forest because..?" Harry trailed off.

"Just like home, I love the look. I live in the middle of a forest," she answered him quickly.

"I remember when this room looked normal."

"I'm not normal, I prefer to be called weird."

"Don't get into the weird/normal speech again, Rhea," Justin cut in. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all left around 9 PM ("Stupid cat!" Hermione commented as she tripped over Apollo once again).

The rest of summer passed rather quickly, and before she knew it, she was magicking all the ivy and statues back into her suitcase. Her owl was fastened tightly in his cage, and Apollo hung on her back in protest of going into the cat-carrier. Rhea relented and let him follow her everywhere.

Rhea arrived at King's Cross in quick time, since it wasn't that far away. She checked the train pass.

"Platform 9 and ¾, is it? Ok, that shouldn't be too hard. Platform 9, Platform 10, it should be around the middle somewhere, shouldn't it?" she asked herself.

"Yes, I expect it is, we had to board Platform 7 and ½ at home," Justin answered her.

"Huh? Oh, I forgot you were here again, sorry…"

"It's fine, but you really need to stop doing that. Come on," he dragged her through the barrier and onto the platform.

"Must you drag me everywhere, I can walk, you know!"

"I know you can, but you were taking too long."

"Your point? I'm fine by myself, unlike you, who can't even lift up your suitcase."

"Oh, shut up!" he said, and boarded the train.

Rhea sniggered and followed him. They got a compartment with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"I haven't seen Malfoy, yet, thank goodness," Hermione commented.

"Oh, that Draco person?" Rhea asked.

"Er.. yeah, Draco," said Ron, awkwardly.

"Just wait, you'll see him soon enough," Harry said.

"I doubt it, the train's leaving," Rhea told him, looking out the window.

"Well, good enough, he's not the nicest company to have around."

"I know what you mean," Justin answered him, "he seems like a pain."

"What color are his eyes, blue or gray? They looked like they had a blue-ish tint to them," she asked Harry.

"Gray, like steel," Harry answered.

"Yeah, just like his personality," Ron replied.

"Maybe we could give his attitude a little tweaking," she said, a mischievous look in her eyes.

"And what do you mean by that?"

"Oh, look, here he comes now," Justin cut in.

"Great, I can get started," Rhea smirked. Draco walked into the compartment as she was saying this. He looked at her, then back at Harry.

"Talking with this American trash again, Potter? You would have been much better off if you would have listened to me in the first place," Draco commented.

"You would have been better off if you would've listened to ME in the first place," Rhea said as she punched him in the jaw. Draco staggered a little, shocked that someone hit him with Crabbe and Goyle around.

Rhea scowled at him, then kicked him in the shins. "You're lucky I'm not my best friend, or you would be dead right now," she said as she crossed her arms.

Draco took out his wand, as if issuing a warning. "Draco," Rhea said coolly, taking out her own wand. "Do you think I'm scared of you? I could probably turn you into a newt within a second. And from what I hear, you're not that great at wand-work."

"I wouldn't trust the word of them. But if you're that stupid, go ahead. After all, you ARE American, not exactly intelligent, if you ask me," he sneered. Rhea sneered right back. Her blue eyes flashed dangerously, and she started advancing on him again. Harry held her back.

"You don't want to get in trouble before you're even at the school, Rhea," he said quietly.

She glared at Draco, then sat down in her seat again, watching him closely as he stalked out of the compartment.

"I should turn him into a ferret," she said airily.

"How did you know about that?" Harry asked sharply.

"Like I said before, I have my ways," she smiled angelically.

They stayed on that subject for quite awhile, and before they knew it, they were at Hogwarts. Rhea and Justin went off with the first years, looking a bit awkward since they were so tall.

Rhea and Justin got in a boat of their own, because the first years seemed intimidated by their presence.

After they made their way across the lake, they all went into a small room, where a Professor was standing.

"Rhea and Justin, may I see you for a minute, please," the Professor beckoned for them to follow her. They made their way to a corner, where she lowered her voice.

"You two will be fifth years, as you may already know. There are four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. You are sorted in front of the whole school, and put in one of the four houses. We will sort you last."

Rhea nodded, taking all the information in, at that, the Professor left.

"Follow me, I will take you into the Great Hall, now," she called out over the noise. At once the noise ceased and she led everyone away.

Rhea looked out over the tables. She spotted Draco talking with some fellow Slytherins, and Harry and Ron talking with some Gryffindors. Her name was called then; she hadn't realized how long she had been standing there.

She strode up to the stool and put on the Sorting Hat, which fell over her eyes. It whispered a few things in her ear.

"Hmmm… smart, that's Ravenclaw, loyal, so that would be Hufflepuff, but, no, that wouldn't do. Slytherin would be good for you, too, but then again, so would Gryffindor."

"Don't put me in Slytherin!" she thought pleadingly.

"Are you sure that's what you want? After all, power comes to those in Slytherin."

"I'm VERY sure," she thought back.

"Well, you're brave at heart, so for you, it better be GRYFFINDOR!"

She took the hat off and strode over to the Gryffindor table, and sat down next to Ron. She crossed her fingers, Justin was up next.

The hat immediately shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" He smiled and took off the hat. He ran up to the Gryffindor table, and sat down next to Rhea and Hermione.

Rhea enjoyed the feast immensely, and gobbled most of it down quickly. She then noticed the bewitched ceiling; it was dotted with stars. "Oh, it must have been made to look like the sky outside," she thought to herself.

At once, all of them got up and followed the house Prefect to the portrait hole. She said the password and all of them filed into the common room. Rhea followed Hermione up the steps to their dormitory.

Rhea woke up early that morning, before everyone else had. The area around her bed was covered with vines, and her favorite statues were crowded around it, also. She had a tree by her bedstand where Brizo was sleeping, and a few potted exotic flowers where 2 morpho butterflies rested.

She took out her schedule, Potions was right after breakfast, in the dungeons. She frowned, double potions with the Slytherins. She then let out a quiet groan, realizing who she'd run into. Fortunately, she had done her potions essays, though it wasn't explained very well what she had to write.

She had heard some rumors about Professor Snape, so she would have to watch it. He was head of the Slytherin house, and everyone said that he favored Slytherins. Rhea pushed her hair back and changed into clean black robes.

"Black. It just doesn't go with my complexion, does it?" Rhea complained.

"Get used to it, it's the school uniform," Hermione sighed.

"I look like a zombie. Oh well, I'm demonic enough, maybe it brings out my personality more. You don't like it either, do you?"

"No, but if I were to wear a different color, it would be on a day when I didn't have Potions."

Rhea smirked at that thought. Professor Snape must REALLY be bad, for the top student to insult him like that. She brushed through her hair and put it up in a ponytail.

"So, what's Divination like? I only took it because I don't like math much, and I know enough about Muggles," Rhea asked Hermione.

"You're going to be predicted to die in the next year, and will be tortured and step on a nail or something, she's terrible."

"Ah, well, I might be able to change that."

"Hmm?"

"Never mind," Rhea smiled. Her robes were long enough, but a bit tight, she didn't like baggy things. They were flowing, but not too much, so they looked normal, but a bit better for her.

"Did you just get those robes?" Hermione asked her. "They look a little tight for you."

"I know, but that's fine, I'll live. Besides, I have bigger ones for later in the year if these become too tight, which I doubt."

"Ok, it's up to you, then," she went back to brushing out her hair.

"You know, you could really do something with that hair," Rhea said, and strode swiftly over to her.

"Like what? I've tried almost everything."

"You're using the wrong kind of brush. Hang on, I have just the thing," she said. Rhea took out her wand. She muttered a few things, and Hermione's hair curled under a little, and looked a little bit sleeker, too. "Not bad. Look at me."

Hermione turned to Rhea; she had an amused look on her face.

"Ok, you need just a little foundation…" she took out a small case, and dabbed some of the powder on Hermione's face, covering up the few freckles she had gotten over the summer.

"Perfect, look!" Rhea held up a mirror. Hermione smiled. Her hair wasn't as bushy as it usually was, and some marks on her face were gone due to the foundation.

"Wow, thanks, how long will it stay this way?"

"A month or two, it's magical," she smiled as she closed the case with a snap. They walked down the steps into the common room, their bags over their shoulders.

"Hey Rhea, hey… Hermione?" Harry greeted them.

"Yep, it's the new her!" Rhea proclaimed.

"Well, not exactly…" Hermione corrected her. "Just a little make-up and something with the hair."

"It looks great, feel good about yourself!" Rhea exclaimed.

"Sure, I guess, come on, we're gonna be late for breakfast," Hermione said quickly, and they all walked down to the Great Hall together.

"Where's Professor Dumbledore?" Rhea asked as she looked up at the Staff Table.

"Probably out on Ministry business," Harry replied.

They ate breakfast quickly, then headed down to the potions classroom.

"Professor Snape is his name?" Justin asked.

"Yes, but he's just horrible. I can't stand him, he usually partners me up with Malfoy," Harry said with disgust.

"Well, good luck, I hope I'm partnered with Justin or one of you three, Draco seems horrible," Rhea commented. "Besides, he already doesn't like ME much."

"Snape doesn't like anyone who isn't in Slytherin, especially not Gryffindors."

"He's the head of the Slytherin house, what can you expect from him? He was obviously a Slytherin himself at one time."

"A long, long, time ago," Ron sniggered as they walked into the classroom with the rest of the class.

"Two new ones? OK, Haynes, go with Potter. Karasa, you go with Malfoy," Snape said silkily.

Rhea groaned silently. Draco was the last person she would want to be partnered with. Well, she would make the best of it, as long as she was with the favorite she would be blamed for ANYTHING that went wrong.

"Not you again…" Draco sneered at her.

"Oh, I'm just as thrilled as you are to be with you at the moment," she said, taking out her essays.

Draco eyed the essays as if he wanted to pour acid all over them and make her write them again.

"Don't even think about it, Draco," she hissed. Apollo had followed her without her noticing, and he nudged her leg.

"Why did you bring your cat here?" Draco asked with a tone of disgust in his voice.

"He must have followed me. If you don't watch it, I'm sure Apollo would love to tear you to shreds."

Draco scowled at her, and then started working on the potion they were assigned to do. They had to share a cauldron, so Draco did the cooking, and Rhea did the ingredients.

She handed him some leeches, which he took without looking.

"Ah! Why did you put leeches into my hand like that?" he glared at her as he picked the leeches off of his fingers.

"Why weren't you paying attention, then?"

"Is there a problem here, Miss Karasa?" Professor Snape strode up to them.

"Leeches," Draco glowered.

"I handed him the leeches, and he wasn't paying attention, Professor," she said politely.

Snape glared at her for a minute, then looked at Draco, who had taken the last leech off his thumb. He strode away, glaring at Rhea.

Draco glared at her. "How did you do that?" he hissed.

"Oh, easy, do you really think he'd take away points for something as little as leeches? Really, you need to stop acting like such a baby," she replied calmly. "Simmer that for 30 minutes."

He looked at the cauldron, which he had almost forgotten about and went back to cooking the potion.

At the end of Potions, they had lunch. Draco had stayed behind to finish simmering the potion, but he never did show up at lunch or dinner that day.

The rest of the week passed fairly quickly, with still no sign of Draco, to most everyone's pleasure. Rhea was a slight bit curious to his disappearance, but still happy about it.

The usual happened that week, Professor Trelawny predicted Harry's death, along with Rhea's, and Snape was overly strict after his favorite student had disappeared. Transfiguration went good, along with Charms, and Care of Magical Creatures. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was a bit eccentric, though.

And a week after Draco's disappearance, Rhea did the same thing. She showed up for potions, but didn't return to lunch. It was then that Professor Dumbledore came back. He had heard of Draco's disappearance, and wanted to head over at once, but wasn't fit to do so, since he had gotten a strange sickness at the Ministry.

If Rhea would have been there to know about that, she would have known that it was only Dark Magic that could cause that particular sickness. Rhea studied the Dark Arts often, and people often said her goal was too difficult for her to ever accomplish; it was to become a sorceress. She figured if Voldemort could do it, why couldn't she?

Her extreme studies on the Dark Arts had often led her to certain people who were involved in the Dark Arts, which is how she knew who Draco was. It was often her main cause of letters going home from the school about her sneaking in the Restricted Section again. She had learned the curse on it, and closely following, found out the counter-curse and how to work it. But no one every really cared in her family.

Rhea was being dragged along by her father, much against her will, to a small castle. She was dressed in a large black cloak, so no one could see her face. She was pulled into a dark room; which had only candles for light.

She looked around her. She was surrounded by more people wearing black cloaks. In front of her stood none other than Lord Voldemort. She rolled her eyes inside her cloak and sighed quietly.

"Take off your hood, I enjoy seeing a look of pain on my victim's faces," he hissed. Rhea decided to please him a bit, so she took it off, and threw her hair out of it.

Voldemort stared at her, then looked at her father. "You brought me this… girl? An inferior? And yet you didn't tell me this because you were too cowardly?" he said silkily. Her father looked straight ahead, not saying anything. 

"Inferior? Is THAT what you think of me?! An INFERIOR? And what are you? The supreme high a mighty king of dark arts or something? Wait, take that back, you are, but still! You expect everyone to bow to you and worship the ground you walk on? I mean, look at what you've done to yourself! Those eyes, and your face! You could have actually looked good and become some king of dark arts, you know!" she screeched at him.

"I see you're a feisty one..."

"You couldn't even beat little Harry Potter, that wimp I go to school with who has two little friends following him around all day, and 1st years gawking at him in the halls because he has some little scar on his forehead! I mean, you lost to him four times! And that pathetic little servant of yours, Peter, what's up with him? Boy am I a victim of disappointment in you!"

"And I'm not going to kill you because?"

"I can get you little Harry Potter! He worships the ground I walk on, he follows me like a lost puppy dog! I'm sure I can convince him to follow me right into your clutches."

"I'll think about it, Malfoy, throw her in the dungeon. The last cell, at the very bottom."

"My Lord, I believe that cell is occupied at the present moment," Lucius Malfoy said, stepping into the circle.

"They despise each other, it would be good for them. One or the other will die, your son is sure to be hungry by now," Voldemort said, and waved a hand at Rhea.

Lucius Malfoy grabbed her arm tightly and dragged her away.

"Watch it!" he hissed at him. Mr. Malfoy threw her into the cell, locked the door and strode away without a word.

"Potter, is that you?" Draco called.

Rhea turned sharply on her heel. "Excuse me? Potter? That little bug that walks around following me all day? Who are you anyway?"

She got no answer. This just aggravated her all the more. She whipped out her wand, which the Malfoy had carelessly forgotten to check for, and mumbled something under her breath. The flames of the little fire he had built flared up, catching Draco's wrist.

He scurried away from the fire quickly. She still couldn't make out who it was. So she leaned against a wall and slid down it, thinking nothing of what she might have done to the person by the flames.

Rhea looked in the direction of where the person should be, and for a moment, caught a glimpse of their eyes, which had changed from a gray to a more blue color. She blinked, and the person had turned away.

"Draco?" she called out, thinking of the only person she knew with gray eyes besides the one who had locked her in.

She heard a soft growl, but nothing more. She looked at the flames, which were pretty high by now, so she softened them.

"Well, if we're going to be locked in here together, we might as well get used to it," she got up and walked over to the corner where Draco was holding his arm in pain.

"If you burn my arm off, I don't think that's likely to happen," he growled at her. She looked at his arm where the flame had touched him. It was slowly disintegrating the flesh.

Rhea waved her wand at his arm, and the skin and muscle tissue appeared like new, except for a small scar the shape of a flame. He rubbed at it

"At least it's not in the middle of your forehead."

"I guess that's true. Hey, can you make some food with that, I'm starving down here."

She looked around, it didn't look like they fed anyone down here, they would let them waste away forever.

"Ok, what do want?"

"Anything as long as it's edible."

She waved her wand and made him an order of fries and a Whopper. "Er.. I'm out of practice, sorry. It's edible, though, try it. It's a Muggle food. Here, there's ketchup, too, you put it on the meat and the fries."

He picked up a french fry and took a bite of it. "Pretty good for a Muggle food. Thanks."

"No problem." She waved her wand again and coleslaw appeared. "Ew.. ummm.. let's try something else, then." She waved her wand again, and some chicken strips and fries appeared. "Eh, good enough."

She took a bite of the chicken. "Mmmm.. Chi Chi's!"

"What?"

"American Muggle restaurant. Yours is from Burger King, another restaurant."

"Oh. It's pretty good."

"You said that already. And you know, you could cover that mark up with a bit of foundation," she said, eyeing the Dark Mark on his wrist.

"Huh? Oh, that… yeah, I'm gonna have to cover it up eventually… if I ever get out of here."

"I'm too valuable to kill, they're gonna let me out of here sometime."

"What do you mean 'too valuable?'"

"I can get Potter to dance right into his clutches. While singing the macarena!"

"Why didn't I think of that?" he asked himself.

"You're Slytherin."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'm better than you."

"I resent that."

"It's true! You're not in Gryffindor, are you?"

"Slytherin's the best house and you know it!"

"I do? That never occurred to me before, Draco-boy. Anyways, I'm gonna find a way to get you outta here. No one deserves this."

"I'm really tired. I haven't slept for days. Can you make me a pillow?"

"Sure." She conjured 2 pillows out of thin air, and one fell on him.

"Ow…" he rubbed his forehead. "Well, I'm going to sleep now, talk to you in the morning."

"Yeah.. sure." She trailed off and strode over to the other side of the cell, where she set her pillow against the wall and lay down.

Rhea looked at the fire, which was dying down. She flared it up a little and lay her head back down on the pillow before falling asleep.

Rhea played with the fire for awhile. She looked around the cell; it had dead things lying all over the place. Mostly rats, but a raccoon or two were rotting in a hole in the wall.

It was the dead of night, she could here the faint sounds of voices, but nothing sounded close enough to hear them. She looked at Draco, he was still sleeping.

She decided not to wake him. He needed his sleep. Rhea looked up at the ceiling; it was made of dirt. Shouldn't be too hard to break through. She took out her wand and tried everything she knew on the dirt ceiling, but nothing worked. It must have been bewitched.

"You know you can't get out of here. And he'll let you out when he's ready. Which should be soon," Draco said wearily.

"I hope so, I hate it down here."

***** 2 Days Later *****

Draco was looking a bit better, but no one looks good when they've been locked in a dungeon for more than a week. Rhea was in a fairly good mood, for someone in a dungeon, at least. She had a good feeling about that day.

"Cheer up, Draco, I'll figure out a way to get you out of here," she told him, he was looking extremely glum that day.

"I hope you do, if they let you out and leave me down here, I won't survive," he answered.

Rhea looked at her wand, which was lying on the floor, the Lumos charm being used. The cell was so decrepit after you saw it in a brighter light. There were bones lying all over the place.

"It gives me the creeps down here," she said, trying to take her mind off of the fact that Draco might become an addition to the bones in the other corner.

"I wish father would let me out of here, but then he would probably be punished for it," he told her.

"You'd both be dead, so I guess it's best for one to survive."

"It would be better for me to survive than him, I'd end up lasting longer."

"True, but would you give your life up for your son?" she asked, figuring Draco to be just like his father.

"Yes, I mean, if I was his age I would."

"I guess you're not as bad as I first thought," she smiled at him, "There's a spider in your hair."

He wiped it out. "At least I'm not like Weasley, he'd probably die of fear if there was a spider on him."

"Which one? Ron?"

"Yea, him."

She sighed, "This confinement is too much. I need to run, to… feed my cat and make sure he doesn't tear Potter up before I can bring him here."

Draco sniggered. "Your cat doesn't like many people, does he?"

"Apollo is very protective of me. Knowing them, they probably locked him in a closet or something."

"Apollo is it?"

"Yea…" Rhea stopped suddenly. She picked up her wand. "Nox…" The light went out and she sat against the wall.

Lucius Malfoy opened the cell. "Rhea, the Master wants you."

She hid her wand in her robes and followed him, dusting herself off on the way. She silently cursed herself; she should have left her wand with Draco. He could at least make some food for himself.

"Ah, Rhea, I see your time in the dungeon is up," Voldemort said. "Although it didn't seem to have much of an effect on you."

She didn't say anything, just stared at him.

"Your father has been killed, the Avada Kadavra curse, and you will die the same way if you don't get Potter to me. Now, I'm sure you want something in return? I can give you almost anything. Money, a bit of power, other things."

"Getting Potter back here will be a lot of trouble, so I'll need an assistant. Someone who won't look too conspicuous," she said.

"Take your pick, I have many who can help you."

"Draco Malfoy."

"You want him? He's not very trustworthy."

"He's powerful enough. Besides, I'm sure he'll be happy to help," she continued. Voldemort obviously did NOT want to let that kid out. She sighed to herself and wondered what Draco might have done.

"Fine, have it your way. Lucius, bring your son here."

"Yes, Master," he turned and strode off in the direction where she had come.

Draco arrived shortly after, being dragged along by his father. Lucius pushed his son into Rhea. She stumbled and Draco fell.

"Really, you don't want to make yourself look like an idiot," she whispered to him as she pulled him up.

"Sorry, it's hard to keep my balance, I haven't stood up for a long time…" he whispered back.

Rhea turned to Voldemort. "After Draco gets used to walking on two legs again, we will begin."

"Very well. Lucius, take them back to the school," he hissed. Lucius nodded, grabbed them both by the wrists and dragged them out of the castle.

"So are you going to cut the circulation off to my wrist the whole way there, or are you going to let us follow you?" Rhea complained after 10 minutes of walking.

"Hmm? Oh, sorry," he let go of them and kept walking. "Come on, we don't have all day."

Rhea and Draco jogged up to him and then slowed and continued walking. Rhea loved the outdoors, but in this area everything was dead. The grass was yellowed, and the trees didn't have any leaves. Well, any trees still standing, at least.

"I'm just thrilled about all of this," she said sarcastically.

"I know what you mean," Draco stumbled.

"Do I need to make sure you don't trip over yourself?"

"Yes."

"Fine then," she caught his wrist and hoisted him back onto his feet.

"You're just as bad as he is," he motioned towards Lucius.

"Not really, he'd just leave you there to pick yourself up."

Draco nodded and they walked in silence for the rest of the way. He wasn't very steady, so Rhea had to keep pulling him back up. 

They finally reached the school, and Lucius had to walk them all the way past the Great Hall (which was very loud compared to the dungeon) where the rest of the school was having dinner, and up to the Gargoyle guarding Professor Dumbledore's office. He looked disdainfully at it, then turned and looked around.

He made up his mind and headed toward Professor Snape's office. He probably couldn't think of any other teacher who might be around during a mealtime. Well, besides Professor Trelawny, and she wouldn't be the best person to talk to.

He knocked on Snape's door, and after getting an answer, opened it and pushed Rhea and Draco in before him. Draco fell again, and again, Rhea pulled him up.

"Mr. Malfoy, what a pleasure to see you. I see you have found our missing students," Snape greeted Lucius.

"Yes, Severus. I found them quite far away from here."

"Sit down, Lucius. As for you two," he turned his attention to Rhea and Draco, "where have you been?"

Lucius looked at Rhea, who looked at Draco, who just kind of stared into space. Rhea sighed.

"Wake up, time, Draco," she poked him.

"Huh?" he blinked a few times.

"Er.. I don't think he's doing well," she looked at the Professor sitting before them.

"I can see that. Lucius, take your son down to the hospital wing, I suspect you still know where it is?"

"Yes, of course. Come, Draco," he grabbed his son by the wrist and pulled him out of Professor Snape's office.

"Karasa, please explain to me what you were doing and where you were," he glowered at her.

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me. If Draco told you, you might, but he's not here right now."

"Well, go ahead and tell me. Potter and his friends seem to think I'm the one behind all of this, and I can't have that, now can I?"

"No, sir. Well, I know it sounds crazy, but… Voldemort."

"You're saying Voldemort took you? You would surely be dead by now, but you may continue."

"He locked me in the dungeon. And Draco was there. But I got released because I made a deal with him."

"And what was that deal?"

"That I would bring Potter to him."

"You told him that you would bring him Potter, and you got Draco out because of this?"

Rhea nodded.

"I see. Very well, I will speak with Draco about this later, you may go."

"You WHAT?" Draco asked, shocked that she would tell Snape about everything.

"Well, it's not like I had a choice, I mean… you should try it while he's staring at you, it's creepy," Rhea said.

"Now I have to tell him the exact same thing or he'll expel you!"

"Why would you care if he expelled her or not, Malfoy? I mean, after all, she is a Gryffindor, much too good for someone like you," Ron said as walked in.

"Why are you here in the first place, if you're so much better than me?" Draco sneered at him.

"I came for Rhea, we need to talk."

"You came down to the Hospital Wing when I was visiting someone just to talk to me?" she asked him.

"Well, I figured no one should really care if you leave Malfoy here."

"Draco."

"Same thing, now come on!"

"Why should I? I came here for a reason, is it that important?"

"Yes!"

"Fine. Draco, I'll be back later. Bye," Rhea scowled at Ron, but followed him out the door.

"She'll be back, that's something I've never heard before. They always say they'll come back, but they never do.." Draco mumbled to himself.

"Hey Rhea!" Harry called. He jogged up to her.

"Hi! What was so important that you needed to tell me?" she asked him.

"First we want to know what you were doing with Malfoy and what you were doing with that guy's dad," Hermione pointed out.

"And what you see in him, but that's off the topic," Harry cut in.

"Well, Draco's father was taking us back to the school. And he had both of us, so that's what I was doing with him," Rhea answered.

"What exactly were you doing with him?"

"Ask Professor Snape, I'm sure he'd be thrilled to tell you everything."

"You told Snape, but you're not going to tell us?"

"What choice did I have?"

"What choice do you have now?"

"I can walk right out of here whenever I want to."

"Then why don't you?"

"Stop being difficult, Harry!" she kicked him.

"Ow! Why don't you stop being difficult?" he shot back.

"I'm leaving, you're trying to use my own insults against me. You'd never survive against Draco," she turned and smiled to herself.

"I've beaten Voldemort, I can defeat Drac- er- Malfoy, too!"

"Aha! You were going to call him Draco?"

"And your point is?"

"I have no idea."

"Umm.."

"Oy, I'm trying to have a conversation with an idiot!" Rhea strode off towards the Hospital Wing again.

"You came back," Draco said, surprised.

"Yes, I came back, what did you think I was gonna do, leave you here? If I say that I'm coming back, I'll come back," she told him.

"Well, I'm feeling pretty good now, I think I can go tell Professor Snape what happened back there," he stood up, still a little shaky.

"Ok, do you want me to help you down there?"

"Yea, that would be good," he said. Rhea stood up and walked with him down to Professor Snape's office, catching him whenever he looked about to fall.

"I'll wait here for you, Ok?"

"Sure, see you," he knocked on the door to Snape's office and strode in after getting an answer.

Rhea waited for about 10 minutes before Draco walked out of the office.

"You were right, that was difficult," he said, dazed.

"Go back to your common room, you need some rest."

"That sounds like a good idea. See you in Potions tomorrow," he waved to her as he strode off in the opposite direction.

Rhea was tired, too, but she needed to find her cat, first. Ginny provided the useful information that he was in her dormitory, and Hermione was feeding him every day. Rhea walked up to her dorm and changed into her nightclothes. She plopped onto her bed, where Apollo was having a nice nap.

Her back was aching from sitting in the dungeon. Draco must have felt 10 times worse since he was sitting in there longer than her. She guessed that she actually kind of liked Draco. He wasn't that bad of a guy once you got to know him. Maybe it was just pity, but she doubted it. She hardly ever felt pity for someone.

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A/N – So, if you could please R/R, I would be most grateful. I don't mind flames, go ahead and flame me! But I'd much rather prefer constructive criticism over flames… Reviews such as the first four (I might have more, I'm not sure) are also great! They let me know if I'm doing a good job. Please tell me if I'm doing a good job keeping Draco in character… or if he's too evil. Rhea is moody… I would like to also thank my co-author, Liz. THANKS, LIZ!!!

A/D – I claim Liz as mine. Liz claims Adrian as hers. Therefore, I own Adrian… Sorry, Adrian, she told me to put that she owned you. I actually kind of find that offensive to you, but… To Justin, you haven't been online in a month!! WHY?! I really hope you didn't die! Send me an E-mail to reassure me, I'm getting worried.. Yeah, that was a private message to a friend, sorry… My Power of the Pen team CAN'T afford to lose me, and if my friend, Sarah, quits, I'll quit because my enemy that goes by the name of Maggie is our alternate… and I refuse to work with her… I hope we go to state!!! Two days outta school, even if it isn't that far away this time, we still get two days of excused absences because it's a school group… BTW, I live in Ohio… (near the Cleveland area… go Robby Alomar! Heeheehee) R/R or I'll bore you with more stories in the next disclaimer!

I dedicate this to… Adam… ^_^ Hee hee hee… No, I'm not stalking you, Adam… I haven't talked to you in awhile though, so when you go online, I'll IM you, and if you're not on, I'll E-mail you!!

BTW, if you want to contact me by AIM, here are my names:

EvilCat13

EvilCat1324

SilverDragon1324

I have 6, but those are the only 3 I give out to the public. My E-mail addresses are:

[EvilCat13@aol.com][1]

[EvilCat13@pokemasters.com][2]

[Evil_Cat13@yahoo.com][3]

[SilverDragon1324@aol.com][4]

[EvilCat1324@aol.com][5]

By the way, it's thirteen twenty four, not one three two four, because that's so stupid it's not even funny… no offense to anyone…

Until next time,

EvilCat

P.S. I'm waiting for Liz to call me back!! Darn!!!

   [1]: mailto:EvilCat13@aol.com
   [2]: mailto:EvilCat13@pokemasters.com
   [3]: mailto:Evil_Cat13@yahoo.com
   [4]: mailto:SilverDragon1324@aol.com
   [5]: mailto:EvilCat1324@aol.com



	3. Chapter 03

Black Velvet – Part 3

Co-written by EvilCat and E.A.B.

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A/N – Liz says I should cut down on the Author's Notes… and now she can't talk on the phone 'cause her mother read the whole thing and got ticked at her and now I have to call her at 1 AM every night…ok, this is rated PG13 for swearing, a kiss, and Pansy's blood. If it was Draco's blood, it wouldn't have mattered, but Pansy has dirty blood…

A/D – J.K.R. owns all HP characters, I own the plot, Liz owns my nickname "Moon"

I believe we left off when Rhea realizes she likes Draco a blah-dee-blah-dee-blah, that's it for the recap…

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She woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning. Hermione was already awake, waiting for her.

"Good morning, Hermione," she said, yawning.

"Morning, Rhea."

She walked over to her mirror. She brushed through her hair, which always looked the same. She put it up since it was extremely hot out for October.

"Wow, it's been a month already. I didn't notice how fast days pass when you're stuck in a dungeon."

Hermione laughed a little. "What's up with Draco? I'm so used to saying Malfoy, but now Draco seems right."

"He was stuck in a dungeon longer than I was, so he can't walk very well and he's not very strong."

"You were thrown in a dungeon with him?"

"Yea, do you want the whole story?"

"Sure, I'm in for something long," she sat down on her bed.

Rhea told Hermione the whole story, excluding the part about Harry. During potions, Draco couldn't do much because he was so weak. Rhea did most of it, but Draco helped with the cooking a little. They would meet in the library after school.

"Rhea, come here!" Harry called her. He was working on Potions with Justin. They had an essay due the next day.

Rhea sighed and walked over to Harry. She wasn't officially late, yet. She still had a few minutes to spare.

"What?"

"I need to tell you something," he dragged her over to a corner.

"Go ahead."

"Well… ummm… I…"

"Come on, spit it out," she smiled.

"I really like you and I was wondering if, well…"

"Harry, sorry, but I don't have the same feelings for you. You're just not my type," now it was Rhea who was struggling for words.

"Well… ok, but give it some thought. I'll be here," he forced a smile.

"Before you leave, I need to tell you something. You are in mortal danger."

"What else is new?"

"Well, actually, if you're not in mortal danger, than I am, so…"

He raised an eyebrow at this. "What do I need to do?"

"Not get killed. And I have the perfect plan…" Rhea whispered to him all about the Voldemort thing. "So, we're going to have to make an illusion and you're going to have to control it. So that he doesn't suspect anything. And Draco will have to take you there with me."

"You told him you'd give me to him?"

"You know how it is, I was nervous! Forgive me?"

"It's all right, I can defeat him again if I have to," he sighed. 

Rhea blinked, thinking, "He really needs to be less conceited..."

"Rhea, come on! What are you waiting for?" Draco called to her.

"Gotta go, Harry, see you," she told him.

Harry didn't like the idea of Rhea going off with Malfoy. He was totally against him, but he still liked her, and so he slipped on his invisibility cloak and followed them. Draco led her to the back of the library, where hardly anyone went.

"How are we going to get him to Voldemort?" Draco asked her as he sat down.

"I'll have to gain his trust again. It should take me about 4 days. So, I can't talk to you or have anything to do with you. He hates you," she sighed. "Be close to your friends and closer to your enemies…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked her.

"Well, technically, you're my enemy. But then, you're more of a friend. And so therefore Harry is my enemy. But then again, he's ALSO more of a friend."

"Don't worry yourself so much. I have to go…" Draco smiled. He gathered up some books on transfiguration and set them on the table. "Will you help me with some of this tomorrow? I'm not exactly good at it…"

"Transfiguration? Sure, why not?"

"Thanks," he said, kissing her, then walking off.

Rhea blinked in surprise. It wasn't like kissing was anything new to her, but she hadn't expected Draco to just go out and kiss her like that. Of course, it's not like she hadn't wanted to kiss him, because she did, but she hadn't been sure if he had liked her at all. Rhea sighed and stood up, picking up her bag and walking off towards the common room.

Rhea finished all her essays quickly, and went to sleep early again. She was tired out again. Maybe Draco made her tired, she laughed to herself. Then again, she thought as she stroked Apollo, he was really nice to her. Maybe it could work out. But she had work to do, first.

Rhea's birthday fell on Halloween. That meant that she had a feast on her birthday ("What a great birthday present… that isn't really a birthday present!"). She got plenty of birthday presents. All of her good friends back home and at Hogwarts gave her something. Although, she was a bit cautious about the candy from Fred and George. Lauren, Michelle, April, and Sabrina wrote her a letter telling about how they would also be coming to Hogwarts with Bastet.

She had gotten a lot of presents, and her computer (along with an Internet connection) had been sent to her, courtesy of her house-elf, Abydos, who was having the time of his life exploring the house.

"So, who are Lauren and Michelle and April and Sabrina? Oh, and Bastet," Hermione asked, reading the letter over Rhea's shoulder.

"April's the popular one I told you about, Michelle's a really good friend of mine, and Lauren is an even better one, and Sabrina is a nice friend of mine who's a bit… odd," Rhea told her. She held up her hand, a golden ring with a gem on it sparkled in the sunlight streaming in through the window.

"What's that? I never noticed it before."

"That's because it hasn't been sparkling. The gem changes color according to the angle at which it is viewed. The ring itself shapes to fit your finger perfectly. And it's a symbol of friendship. The gem glows when the one with the other ring has done something with true meaning. April holds the other gem."

"Interesting, I've never heard of them before."

"One of a kind pair, VERY special to me."

And then came Christmas break soon after the Halloween feast. The days passed quickly, fortunately enough.

Sure, her friends were coming soon, and everyone was in a happy mood (even Draco, who had gone back to insulting Potter), but the homework was the usual, and she was a Reserve Seeker for Quidditch, but she was only a Reserve. Harry was never out for a game of Quidditch that year. She had a Nimbus 2001, a pretty good broom, but the Firebolt was better. Even better was the Thunderbolt, a new model by the same company that made the Firebolts.

Rhea and Draco stayed at Hogwarts over Christmas. But the only problem was that Bastet hated the Malfoys. In fact, Rhea would probably have to hold her back from killing Draco and get hurt in the process herself. But then again, would Bastet really try to do anything when Rhea was considering Draco as a potential boyfriend?

Lauren, Michelle, April, Sabrina, and Bastet all arrived on Christmas Eve, and were all sorted into Gryffindor that night, to the pleasure of Ron, who needed a good whack upside the head. April gave it to him after she got annoyed at the fact that he was staring at her.

"A little violent, now, are we?" Ron mumbled, rubbing his head.

"Not all of us, just her.. oh, and her, and her," Michelle answered pointing to April, then Sabrina, then to Rhea.

"I'm not that bad, am I?" April asked.

"Of course not, you know we all love you, April," joked Rhea.

"Seriously, am I really that bad?"

"I don't think you're that bad," Ron answered.

"I wasn't asking you…"

"No, you're not, April," Rhea told her, "and if you were, you wouldn't have as many friends as you do."

Bastet stroked her Egyptian Mau, Anubis, and yawned. She wasn't at all thrilled about the choice of conversation.

"Oh, not thrilled about our choice of conversation, are you? Well, then find your own friends, we're perfectly content with the way this is going," Michelle joked.

"What? I don't have an interest in the subject, so I don't think I'll join in," Bastet answered, obviously annoyed by the fact that everyone was paying attention to April.

Rhea shot a sideways glance at Bastet. She turned back and rolled her eyes, Bastet was the name of the Egyptian cat goddess, and Bastet was anything BUT a cat. 

Of course, Bastet probably thought almost the same way of Rhea. Rhea was named after the Greek mother of the gods. It was also the name of a moon.

Rhea scratched Apollo under the chin. He purred and leaned against her. Apollo was bigger than the normal-sized cat. And Anubis was smaller than normal. Being a siamese, Apollo had the natural intelligence. He knew over 10 commands, and was the friendliest cat in the world, according to anyone who knew him, except for Bastet, who was convinced that Anubis was nicer.

"You named your owl after a Greek goddess?" Bastet inquired, looking up Mythology on Rhea's computer.

"When did I give you permission to use my computer?" Rhea sneered.

"Hey, what's your problem? It's not like I'm gonna hurt it!"

Rhea laughed to herself. Sure, Bastet wouldn't hurt it, just get grease all over the keys, Rhea thought to herself, eyeing the bag of Potato Chips next to Bastet. "Wipe your hands before you touch the keys or the mouse-pad."

"Fine. But why did you name him after a goddess?"

"I didn't know it was a goddess at the time, and now he just answers to Brizo, so it's no use changing it."

"He's named after a Greek goddess?" Sabrina laughed.

"Yes, he's the new version of Goddess, don't you know? She created it herself!" Michelle giggled.

"So now her owl is an it?" Lauren sniggered and smirked at Rhea.

"Really, he is! So, let me introduce Brizo, the male owl goddess!" Rhea said, and whistled for her owl, which was on the other side of the common room, tearing up some first years' homework.

"Oy, you guys are idiots," Bastet muttered.

"Who's the bigger idiot? The idiot, or the idiot who came here because of the idiot?" Rhea shot back.

"Erk.."

"And stop using my words!" Rhea whacked Bastet upside the head.

"Hey!"

"Ha ha, now go away, you're no fun to have around. You're not at all interested in our conversations." April waved a hand at her.

Lauren smirked, "And take your miniature stuck up cat with you."

"He's the nicest and rarest you'll ever meet. Much better than that filthy Apollo of hers," Bastet sneered.

"Hey, that's my job, and don't you dare insult Apollo again, or I'll beat you into no tomorrow!" Rhea sneered back at her. Apollo hissed at a passing Anubis, who just turned up his nose and kept walking.

"They make a great couple, you know. They're both stuck up little brats who think they're special because they come from Egypt," April explained.

"I have the strangest urge to start singing 'Lemon Parade' by Tonic…" Rhea trailed off.

Lauren sniggered, and then looked to April.

"Don't you even think about it, that's something your boyfriend should sing to you if you have one," April smirked at Rhea.

"Yes, well, he's not my boyfriend yet, but I think I'm beginning to get to him."

"And I think you've been around English people too long," April smacked Rhea on the back.

"Ow! What'd you do that for?"

"Ah, much better, you're starting to sound American again."

"Oy, I AM American!"

"Of course, that's why you need to sound like one!" Lauren exclaimed.

"Ah, good point, there."

"Now, shall we go to sleep and see what Santa has given us when we wake up?" April smirked.

"I have some things to tell you in the dorm, anyways, so come on!" Rhea got up and led the way.

"Soooo, whatcha wanna talk about?" Michelle asked.

"I've got a lot to tell you guys," Rhea replied and sat down on her bed, letting a Blue Morpho land on her hand. She told them all about Draco and the Voldemort incident. Of course, April just HAD to cut in with her silly comments.

"Very interesting.." Lauren smirked at her.

Bastet's hatred for the Malfoys hadn't changed. Rhea got a friendly punch in the arm from Bastet when she told her about it all. Well, not exactly friendly, more angry than friendly.

Rhea went to bed with a bandage wrapped around her upper arm, which hurt like hell. Bastet was a lot bigger than Rhea. And even though Rhea was pretty muscular herself, she looked like a scrawny little girl compared to Bastet. April was definitely stronger than both of them, and could knock them both flat in seconds.

The all woke up around the same time to the laughter coming from across the room. Ron, Harry, and Draco were all there. Of course, the laughter came from Ron, who was watching Harry constantly insult Draco and Draco trying to keep his cool and not turn Harry into a newt.

"Really, Draco, you're taller than him, why don't you teach him a lesson?" Rhea asked him, jumping out of bed.

"He got me here, so I guess I owe him," Draco muttered.

"Yes, but he's insulting you. Shut up before I whack you with a fish, Harry."

"You don't have a fish," he looked at Rhea.

"I will if I turn Ron into one."

"You were always good at Transfiguration, you know that?" Draco sniggered.

"Ah, well, Cedric, stop hiding!" Rhea turned her attention to a boy with short golden brown hair standing next to Justin.

"So that's his name?"

"Er.. Cedric? But I thought he died," Harry started.

"He's not the same Cedric, dummy, he's in Gryffindor I suppose?" Ron looked at him.

"Yea, he got sorted this morning," Justin told them.

"And he's going out with Lauren," Rhea cut in.

"How'd you know that? That was supposed to be secret!" Lauren screeched.

"I have my ways."

"Is that your answer to everything?" Hermione asked her.

"Nope. See, my answer to that question was 'Nope.' Isn't that special?"

"Rhea, don't make me whack you with a fish-" Michelle started.

"You don't have a fish."

"I have a fish-stick!"

"Aren't you special?"

"Don't we have things to do?" Bastet cut in, walking out of her little area.

"Yes, I believe we do," Lauren answered.

"We've been neglecting the presents sitting all over the place. And this one is cutting off the circulation to my leg," April complained. "Ow, pain, hurt, hurt, pain, hurt!"

"Sorry, there was no where else to put it!" Rhea apologized.

"Why did you have to put in on my legs?"

"I didn't want to hurt your little toes," she smirked.

"There's plenty of room on the floor!" April yelled.

"Ah, you have a point, I didn't notice that," Rhea smiled and gently set the package down on the floor.

"What is in that thing?"

"Open it and find out!"

"Why are we here?" Draco cut in.

"Because you must get your presents!" Rhea proclaimed, taking out some packages from her set of drawers. She tossed all of them their presents, which weren't very big, compared to the one April had gotten from Rhea.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Open it and see, dummy. What do you expect me to do, tell you what it is, only to have you open it up and see for yourself?" She complained.

"Good point."

"Go ahead, or do you still want me to tell you? All right, I knitted you a pair of red socks!" she sighed.

"You did?"

"I'm kidding! Open it!"

"You're too American, I can't tell if you mean it or not," he smirked.

"Don't make me whack you with the fish-stick!" she snatched a fish-stick away from Michelle, who had been snacking on them.

"Hey!" Michelle took it back.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself!"

"You have a strange obsession with fish, you know that?" Bastet asked.

"Yes, I happen to know what I am obsessed with and what I hate, thank you very much, unlike you, who seems to not know what you prefer," Rhea sat down on her bed again.

"Have a can of beans!" Lauren tossed Rhea a can of Berrie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"Oh, so now it's 'Rhea and the Beanstalk?'" Bastet asked.

"Yes, I'm gonna throw three of these magical beans out of the window and tomorrow I shall climb up the beanstalk, which will be rainbow-colored and grow lots of beans," Rhea smirked.

"That's not how the story goes.."

"Oooo, sugar quills!!!" Michelle smiled and took one out.

"All right, who gave Michelle the sugar quills?" April demanded.

"'Twas I!" Rhea sniggered.

"You know she shouldn't have something made of pure sugar!!" she smiled.

"Rhea gave me sugar quills, too," Ron said.

"Sugar quills for all!! No, just 3 people, Bastet, who has already opened her presents, got another box," Rhea tore off the wrapping of a square box. "Yummy, fudge!"

"She gave candy to everyone this year," April pointed out, opening a huge barrel of Berrie Bott's Beans.

"Yes, but you're the only one who got a whole barrel," she took a sip of Pepsi, "Because I kept forgetting your Christmas presents."

"You got Pepsi? From who?" Lauren asked, peeking over her shoulder.

"Myself, have one!" Rhea took out another can.

"You gave me a box of Fizzing Whizbees, how nice," Draco observed, taking the wrapping off his present.

"Oh, looky, broom!" Rhea answered, not exactly listening. She picked up the long package and took the wrapping off. "Ooooooh, aaaaaaahhh... let's marvel at the pretty broom, now!"

She set her Pepsi down and stood up. The broom came into her hand. "Perfect alignment, smooth, well cut, perfect!" she smiled. "A Thunder, gotta love it, top quality!"

"Lemme see!" April walked over to her. "Nice and light, it's made specially for Seekers, right?"

"That's what they were aiming for, with the speed and all. But it would work good for any position," she answered.

"Who sent it?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The gang."

"A gang?"

"No, not just _A_ gang, _THE_ gang!" April corrected her.

"And who would that be?"

"It would be all my little friends back home who pitched in," Rhea smiled.

"You have a lot of friends?"

"80 or so," April answered.

"If you go down to the 6th degree," said Rhea, who was watching her broom being passed around the room.

"Maybe you could request an arm," Harry passed the broom to Ron, who gingerly examined it.

"Hmmm? What for?" Bastet asked.

"So Draco could catch better," he answered.

"So you've settled your differences and are now calling each other by your first names? Great, but all Draco needs is a little training," Rhea popped a red bean into her mouth. "Mmmm, strawberry!"

"So ALL of us have settled our differences?" Bastet stood up. "I wouldn't be caught dead calling him by his first name!"

"Seems that way, doesn't it?" Rhea set her broom across her pillows.

"Yes, come on, let's hurry up, I wanna go outside!"

They all finished opening their presents and went down to breakfast before going outside for a snowball fight.

And so they worked on the plans for the rest of the break, they weren't getting anywhere, though.

Bastet was getting crueler and crueler every day. In fact, Rhea considered knocking out Potter and bringing him to the Dark Lord that week. It wouldn't be that hard, Potter was a weakling, she could take him down when he was sleeping, doing homework, or anytime when Ron and Hermione weren't around to help him.

Bastet had probably considered doing almost the same thing to Draco, but Rhea wouldn't have it. She had saved Draco once and she wasn't going to let him die after her efforts. And Rhea wouldn't have anyone hanging off him like she was his girlfriend. And Pansy was pissing Rhea off day and day.

Rhea stretched and took the scrunchy out of her hair. It was too cold to have it up, and she was going to be in the colder areas of the castle that day. She trudged through the crisp snow. It was February already and so far they hadn't completed much.

She yawned from the cold; it was slowing her brain, which was back in the common room by the fire. She ran into Justin.

"Watch it Rhea," he said as he almost fell in the snow.

"Huh?" she looked at Justin, "Oh, sorry about that, I'm still not awake."

"It's ok, but you need to watch where you're going or you might wander into the Forbidden Forest," he turned back to Harry.

Rhea scowled at him. She wanted nothing to do with Potter at the present moment, but it sure seemed like Bastet did. At this Rhea turned, Bastet thought she was so great. Sure, she was pretty smart, but Rhea had always gotten better marks and everything of Rhea's was better than that of Bastet's. She wasn't about to let Bastet get a taste of popularity that was rightfully hers.

Rhea heard a thud, and she turned. Bastet had shoved Draco into a tree and was getting ready to beat him up. She scowled even more as she saw Pansy try to help him. Rhea was 3 or 4 inches taller than Pansy. Draco was 2 inches taller than Rhea. No way was Pansy even close to helping him.

Rhea sneered at her, then noticed Potter sniggering at him. She had a strong urge to bash his head in. Right through that ugly scar of his.

"Rhea, you look ready to kill, what's wrong?" Justin asked her.

"Oh, nothing, it's just…. Nothing," she had almost let it slip.

"What, Rhea, are you feeling protective about your boyfriend?" Bastet teased.

"Stop acting like a 4-year old, Bastet. Of course, your name should keep you from that, oh mighty cat goddess," Rhea smirked. The Slytherins were staring at them; no two Gryffindors had ever been this close to ripping each other's throats out.

"Come on Rhea, back down, you know you'll never win against me. You're just jealous because I've taken all your popularity away."

"You know just as well as I do that I will always be better than you, and you will always be a hopeless little girl who follows me around like a bug every day," Rhea smiled at the look on Bastet's face and continued. "And of course you will be a hopeless romantic, one who just sits and daydreams all day and who never even tries to make them come true."

"And what does that make you?" Bastet asked, "one who stands there and wipes those dreams out of her mind?"

"No, of course not. I take action. It may not be quick, but I try, nonetheless."

"So what are you going to do to me? Push me in the snow? I'm sorry, but that just isn't a very good line of defense."

"Why would I push in the snow when there's so much more I can do? Like say, feed you to my cat? Or maybe even kill you? Oh, I can control you, cause you uncontrollable pain, anything you like, or anything you don't," she said silkily. She was getting to Bastet. Rhea smiled, it was working. Bastet was nervous under pressure.

"I could kill you if I wanted to, but that would be an Unforgivable, wouldn't it? I'd much rather throw you into a tree," Bastet shot back. She was bigger than Rhea, and comparing the two, Rhea looked scrawny. But Rhea was quicker and more strategic, and if it involved an all out chase, Rhea would win. In confined spaces, Rhea could only go so far, she would have to eventually give in.

Rhea sighed and turned, it was impossible to win an argument with Bastet, she was too stubborn. Rhea would be on a subject and Bastet would change it just so she would eventually win. Rhea had her weaknesses, and Bastet had hers. Bastet would sit and mope all day while Rhea would go out and talk with people, trying to hide her feelings.

"I see I've won again, Rhea. Too bad, I was having fun watching you waste away," Bastet called.

Rhea turned to Bastet, her eyes narrowed. She whipped out her wand, mumbled a few words and turned Bastet into a hamster.

"Great for transfiguration," she smirked and put her wand back in her robes. Bastet was good in an all out physical fight, but when it came to wand-work; Rhea had to be the best.

"Karasa, may I see you please?" Rhea cursed herself. It was Professor McGonagall. Not only was she head of the Gryffindor house, she was the transfiguration professor.

Rhea slinked over to her, a guilty look on her face.

"Now, I would have been happy if you had turned a ball or a book or some inanimate into a hamster, but a student is unforgivable," she scolded. "I'm taking you to the headmaster about this, and 100 points from Gryffindor."

Rhea winced. They wouldn't be able to win back 100 points very easily. And she was in the same dorm as the one she had turned into a hamster. However, no one was asking her to reverse the process, so maybe Apollo would have some fun.

Rhea lay in her bed; she had lost 100 points for Gryffindor, and gotten a week worth of detention. She groaned, her cat was digging his claws into her stomach.

"You should've left her alone, you know," Hermione told her.

"She just gets on my nerves a lot, and I'm not used to people treating me like that. She gets a taste of popularity and it goes to her head. Back in Ohio, she had like 5 friends, and now she's hanging out with someone famous and she thinks she's all that," Rhea stroked her cat.

"Well, I can relate to how she felt with 5 friends. I had less before I came here."

"And I have about 38, most are in the states, though," Rhea sighed. 

"So you're not used to having everyone ignore you?"

"Well, I miss Adam a lot."

"He's your boyfriend?"

"No, he's just a good friend…"

"But you're very protective of him, you know?" Bastet strode in.

"He doesn't even like you," she sneered.

"Of course, how would he feel if he knew you were going for a Malfoy?"

"Watch it, Bastet, or I might just turn you into a goldfish," she growled and walked out of the dorm.

"She wouldn't even try it," Bastet looked at Apollo, who was on his back, purring.

"Yes she would," Lauren poked her head in.

"If she says she might, she probably will," Michelle said, walking into the dorm.

"She's like that, you know, hard to figure out at first but once you know her, it's easy to know what she'll do," April continued, striding into the dorm. Lauren followed quickly after.

Rhea poked her head into an empty classroom in the dungeons. It was empty. She slinked in and closed the door quietly. Apollo scampered in and Brizo flew off her shoulder and perched on a chair.

She opened a closet and took out a large, dusty book. She walked over to a chair and sat in it. She blew some dust off the cover. It had a picture of a pure white dragon with a long graceful neck and tail and large, leathery wings. It reared up and looked at her.

Apollo meowed quietly and lay down in a place that was dust-free. Rhea pulled out the Harry plans and looked at them. She sighed and looked at her watch, Draco was already late. It would be easier to pretend to be Harry's girlfriend and take him to Voldemort and then get on with her life. But if she had done that, Draco would be dead at the present moment.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps and went to the door in case it wasn't Draco. Someone knocked violently on the door.

"Let me in, Bastet's gonna kill me!" Draco called.

She opened the door. Draco walked in quickly and Rhea slammed it shut and locked it. A loud banging was then heard. "So why is Bastet going to kill you?" she asked him.

"I had a little run-in with her on my way here. When I didn't tell her where I was going she took out her wand and threatened that she'd kill me if I ever came near her or any of her friends again," he gingerly touched his neck which had blood trickling down it.

"Did she use a spell or just hit you with it?"

"She hit me with it."

"Her wand's not much use to her, her dad was a sorcerer and her mom a sorceress, so she doesn't really need it," Rhea took out her own wand. "Bippity Boppity Boo!" she smiled. "Hey, it worked, that wasn't supposed to happen!"

"Where did that come from?" he asked.

"My weird little mind," she smiled and threw her wand onto her chair, which turned into a frog. "I don't know what's worse, my chair turning into a frog, or Potter liking me."

"What did you just say?"

"Huh? The frog or the Potter?"

"That doesn't make any sense, either," he said.

"I don't think it was supposed to," Bastet called.

"How did you get in here?" Rhea asked her.

"Haven't you ever heard of a back door?"

"Not in a basement," she answered.

"It's a dungeon, genius!"

"Same thing!"

"Do I have any place in this conversation?" Draco cut in.

"Was I talking to you, snake-face?" Bastet whipped out her wand.

"I don't think you were," Rhea said and snatched Bastet's wand away. She hit her over the head with it.

"That's it! Don't ever mess with a sorcer-" she took a sidelong glance and spotted Draco. "Well I just let that slip, now didn't I?"

"No, I did it for you," Rhea smirked.

"WHAT?!"

"That her evil friend was invincible," Draco sighed.

"I'm not evil, you dimwit! Oh, what were you two doing here anyway? Talking about how she's going to save Harry from Voldemort?" Bastet sneered.

"You're working with Potter?" Draco sounded almost disgusted.

"Oh, yeah, she's making a holographic-robot thing to make sure Harry doesn't die and so that she doesn't die. Be close to your friends but closer to your enemies, isn't that how the saying goes, Rhea? So basically you're just using Malfoy, aren't you?"

"No! Besides what would be the point of using him? What would I use him for?" she hissed.

"You know his family's filthy rich, Rhea! In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that he supports Voldemort, I would probably be going for him right now!"

"Money isn't a factor in my life, Bastet. You know I have a lot of money, more than I need, why would I want more? Unlike you, I'm not a greedy little bitch!"

"I'm not little! I'm 6'2" and what are you, 5'9"? I could pound your little boyfriend into the ground anytime I want," she smirked.

"You wish! He could beat you in a duel anytime! And even if you did kill him, I'd defeat you after!"

"That is if you were his second, what makes you think he won't pick Crabbe or Goyle to back him up?"

"Because those two are idiots, you idiot!"

"We're gonna be late for potions, come on or Snape will kill us!" Draco cut in.

"Professor Snape? Severus Snape?" Bastet asked.

"Yeah, what's it to ya?" Rhea glanced at Bastet, then picked up her wand. She grabbed Draco by the wrist and dragged him out of the room, Bastet following slowly.

Rhea dragged Draco into the potions class quickly. They were late, and they were rewarded with detentions.

Bastet arrived 2 minutes after Draco and Rhea. "Sorry I was late Professor!" she panted. Snape glared at her, then told her to take a seat next to Cedric. Lauren glared at her.

Rhea and Draco were both curious to why she didn't get a detention. Rhea brought it up later when the potion was cooking.

"That's an easy question, remember when I went to that private school in the states? Well, it wasn't really in the states. I was transferred here and Professor Snape was one of my teachers." She replied.

Rhea glared at Bastet as she stirred jellyfish into the potion.

"Ummm.. Rhea?" Draco poked her.

"Not now, I'm trying to talk to Bastet," she told him.

"Rhea?" he waved a hand in her face. "RHEA!" 

"What?"

"You have to cut the tentacles off the jellyfish before putting them in," he pointed out.

"Oh, sorry," she smiled.

"Come on, even I'M not THAT stupid," Cedric sniggered. Rhea smacked him. "Ow…"

"Don't insult me, you idiot!"

"Don't insult him!" Lauren yelled.

"This is turning into a nice conversation, now isn't it?" Rhea sighed.

"Why did you drag Malfoy into potions earlier?" Justin asked Rhea at lunch.

"Because…" Rhea trailed off.

"Because she was having a little discussion with him in an empty classroom when SOMEONE realized they were gonna be late," Bastet cut in.

"What were you doing with Malfoy in an empty classroom?" Harry asked absentmindedly.

"Discussing your fate," Bastet answered him. "And on the subject of that, I have some great design plans for your little predicament if anyone cares to listen."

"I don't," Rhea said and stood up after finishing a small lunch. She turned and walked away. Everyone else seemed to be interested.

"Well, I'll show you if I can find my… wand," Bastet said, searching through her robes.

"Looking for this?" Rhea said, returning. She held up Bastet's wand and twirled it.

"Give it back!"

"You don't REALLY need this, do you? Of course you don't!" she sneered and snapped Bastet's wand between her fingers. "Oopsies, looks like I accidentally broke it! How clumsy of me!"

"How dare you?! Fine, I won't use it," Bastet glared at Rhea, then turned to her paper. She muttered a few words and the design plans worked their ways across it.

Rhea smirked, then walked off, throwing the two wand pieces back at Bastet.

"Rhea, how do you think your fellow Gryffindors will feel when they find out you're wearing a snake ring? Are you switching to Slytherin?" Bastet called. At this, the whole Gryffindor table turned and looked at Rhea. She narrowed her eyes and strode over to Bastet.

"Yep, see, a snake? Pretty isn't it? My mother gave it to me," she said angrily, holding up her hand. On one of her fingers was a silver snake, which faded into opal for the head. The eyes were made of the same type of gem as her and Lauren's friendship ring, which was on her ring finger.

Justin glared at her. "Rhea, it's a snake…"

"I don't see what your problem is with me having a boyfriend who's in Slytherin! I mean, if he was in Gryffindor, I don't think you would care!" she hissed.

"Of course we wouldn't. But he's one of THEM," Bastet said. "A Death Eater. A good for nothing piece of trash!"

"Which is what she has obviously become," Ron said, looking at Bastet.

"Why do you people care who she's going out with? I find Draco rather attractive myself," Michelle cut in.

"Might I remind you who we're talking to?" April looked at Michelle.

"Huh? Oops, sorry, didn't mean that," Michelle blushed and looked away.

"At least SOME people don't care, they still like me for who I am!" Rhea glared at Bastet, then looked at Justin. "You could do to take a leaf out of her book."

"What are you? Someone who's obsessed with a piece of white trash?" Bastet asked.

Rhea slapped her across the face, leaving two scratch marks. "Stop it! Get ahold of yourselves! I know most Gryffindors and Slytherins hate each other with passion, but sometimes there are exceptions! And all of you, another word about this, and you'll each get a little dose of rattlesnake poison and some scratches across your face, just like her!"

"Rattlesnake poison?" Bastet's eyes widened.

"My nails are still wet, you see? The secret ingredient to this polish is snake poison. Your face will swell up and you might twitch a little, but it'll all go away eventually," Rhea smirked.

"And you'd do that to all of us?" Justin looked at her.

"No, of course I wouldn't!" she looked at him and brushed one of her long nails against his cheek. He pulled back from the sting.

"Go away and leave us alone, you bitch," Bastet sneered. "You don't belong here, you belong with them!" she pointed to the Slytherin table.

"Do I?" she frowned and walked away.

"Well, that was interesting," Harry said, a bit stunned.

"It was, wasn't it?" Hermione asked. Michelle, Lauren, April, Sabrina, and Hermione all got up at the same time and headed to the dorms.

"Now look what you've done, your face will swell up horribly by tomorrow, of course. It'll be painful to sleep, in fact, sometimes you won't even be able to control your muscles," Draco whispered in Bastet's ear. She scowled and threw a punch at him as hard as she could, but he stopped it with his hand.

"How'd you do that?" Harry asked, bewildered.

"Practice. My friends don't let me go around when at any moment someone could jump out and kill me."

"She wouldn't kill you, would she?" Ron looked at Bastet, who was using all of her strength to try and get to Draco.

"You never know," Harry said.

"I could probably hurt you right now, you know that?" Draco looked at Bastet. He was slowly sliding on the stone floor.

"I could kill you if I wanted right now," she hissed.

"I doubt that," he smiled. At this point Pansy walked up behind him.

"What are you trying to do to him?" she sneered at all the Gryffindors. Draco sighed.

"We're not doing anything, she's the only one doing something," Harry pointed to Bastet.

"Get your hands off him," Pansy hissed, then smacked Bastet. Bastet was stunned that someone would hit her, then stood up, trying to intimidate Pansy.

"Wow, you're tall, I'm so scared," Pansy said sarcastically. Rhea returned at that moment. She picked up her bag, then grabbed Draco and dragged him away.

"You don't have to drag me everywhere, you know," he whispered.

"Fine," she let go of him. "Follow me," she ran out of the front doors.

"Where are we going?"

"Forbidden Forest," she answered.

"Why?"

She smiled, "No reason."

"There's always a reason," he raised an eyebrow.

She looked at the lake. "Would you rather sit by the lake?"

"Sure."

"Ok, good enough," she smiled and walked over to the edge. She dipped her hand into the warm water. Even though it was winter, the water was still warm. She looked out over it.

"What are you looking at?" Draco asked.

"Nothing."

"Whatever," he ran his fingers through the water.

"What's wrong, Draco?"

"Nothing, it's just…" he trailed off.

"It's just what?" she looked at him and sat in the snow.

"What's up with your evil friend, why is she so against me?"

"Look at your wrist," she sighed.

"Is that the only reason?"

"You're blond," she sniggered.

"She hates me because of my hair color?" he raised an eyebrow.

"If you had brown hair, she would like you a lot more."

"Where do you find these people?" he said, exasperated.

"I find them in the states, I don't think you'd fit in there very well," she smiled.

"And why not?"

"Because there are some very mean people there. And if don't play your cards right, you'll never make it."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that if you don't make a good first impression, you'll be hated by all."

He laughed, "Yeah, I guess you're right, then. Did you have different houses in your school?"

"Sorta, but it's a lot different from this. We had 4 houses like this, but we weren't sorted with a sorting hat. We didn't have names like yours, though, we were usually referred to by our team animal."

"What were the animals?"

"There was a cobra, a panther, a hawk, and a shark," she said slowly, recalling them all.

"Which one was yours?"

"The panther."

"How did they choose?"

"I really don't know. They tell us when we get our letter, but I know it's not random. Maybe the quill knows and writes it down for them," she smiled. "Our team leader was the transfiguration professor."

"Just like here, then. You were put in the house with the lion as it's symbol, and the head is the transfiguration professor," Draco said thoughtfully.

Rhea nodded, "They all had they're color combinations, too. The cobra was green and sapphire, the panther was violet and ruby, the hawk was orange and emerald, and the shark was teal and pearl. Something else that was different were our team flowers. My team flower was the Queen of the Night, the black rose. The cobras had poinsettias, the hawks had poppies, and the sharks had water lilies."

"That's a bit odd, they got into a lot of detail about all of that, didn't they?"

"Yeah," she picked up a flat stone and whipped it across the lake. It skipped 9 times before finally sinking into the ripples of water. Rhea smiled and looked up; the sun was a bit lower. She looked at her watch and got up. "Come on, we have Care of Magical Creatures."

"What's the rush, it's right over there," he pointed down the path near Hagrid's house.

"You have a point," Rhea sat back down; no one was there, yet. She looked at her nails, which were pretty long compared to most peoples. She sighed and glanced at Draco, who was running his fingers through the water with a distant look in his eyes.

"Rhea, whatcha' doing?" Michelle threw a snowball at her, hitting her in the back of the head.

"Hey! What'd you do that for?" Rhea turned and looked at all of her friends.

"No reason," April walked up to Rhea and sat down next to her. She looked at Draco. "What were you two doing here?" she sniggered.

"Nothing in particular," Draco answered.

"Bastet's really pissed off at you, you know," Michelle sat next to April.

"Well, yeah, Rhea's not stupid, she's probably figured that someone who just got scratched across the face and contaminated with rattlesnake venom from her is gonna be mad," Lauren smiled.

"You never know," Sabrina pointed out, "Bastet might want to die."

"She will once it kicks in," Rhea said, "Just like the Cruciatus curse, except you don't have to control it."

"And it doesn't stop," Draco said, looking out over the rippling water.

"What's wrong Draco? You seem sad," Michelle asked.

"Nothing," he answered.

"Really, that's a stupid question, how would you feel if someone was out to kill you?" Pansy invaded.

"How would we know? No one's out to kill us," Rhea answered irritably.

"Draco, why are you hanging out with these Gryffindor losers?" Pansy turned her attention to Draco. Draco didn't answer, but his face twisted into a sort of snarling expression, still looking out at the lake. "Come on, let's go," she pulled at his arm.

"Mine!" Rhea smacked Pansy's hand away.

"Since when have I been owned?" Draco looked at them.

"I don't know, but she's not stealing you," Rhea smiled mischievously.

"Since when was he yours?" Pansy sneered.

"I should be asking the same of you."

Pansy looked taken aback. "I don't see why he would hang out with rude Americans as yourself," she snarled hatefully.

"I don't see why he would go around with you, you ugly freak," Rhea shot back, not thinking of anything better to say.

"At least I can think up better comebacks."

"At least I'm fairly attractive," Rhea smirked. At this Pansy shot herself at Rhea and twisted Rhea's arm around.

"You got me by the wrist, bad choice," Rhea said calmly, digging her short but sharp nails into Pansy's arm. Pansy screeched in pain and let go of Rhea's wrist, but Rhea had Pansy by the arm by that time and was still digging her nails in deeper, a look of hatred on her face.

"She did that to me, once," Sabrina chuckled, watching the blood run down Rhea's fingers. "Rhea usually doesn't mind blood, it doesn't disgust her like it does most people."

"Why should blood disgust someone, it's in everyone. I think I've hit a bone… or the flesh is too strong for me to go through it. Now for the more painful part; taking the nails out of you," Rhea said, not caring about the blood dripping from her arm. She slowly took her nails out of Pansy, who was in too much pain to move.

After the slow procedure was done, Pansy snapped her hand onto her arm in pain. She hurried off, not wanting to be anywhere near Rhea or her friends. Rhea put her arm in the snow, washing the blood off.

"That was a strange experience," Draco looked at her.

"It was, wasn't it?" Rhea smiled. "Maybe I'll get punished for something."

"You're in a violent mood today, aren't you?" Sabrina laughed.

"When am I not?"

"I think you might even scare Draco a little!"

"Nah, I don't think it's possible, is it, Draco?" Rhea smiled and put her arm around him playfully.

"Aren't you feeling flirty today?" Bastet growled.

"Yes, but not with you, you're too ugly, go away," Rhea sniggered.

"Ha ha, and for a bonus, he," she sneered.

"Hey, we're the ones who get to sneer!" Rhea kept her arm around Draco, almost defensively.

"I really don't think anyone likes you because of your little show back there," Bastet decided to sit down.

"Well, screw that idea then," Rhea took her arm off Draco's shoulder and laughed, leaning against him.

"She's hopeless," Ron muttered.

"I guess it's really not that bad," Harry replied, and they both sat next to Bastet.

"Now, we're a happy little family, now aren't we? We need to get some more Slytherin's over here, though," Rhea looked around and called to a group of 3 standing a few yards away.

"Do we have to do this?" Draco asked, a bit uncomfortable.

"What, you like your old friends?"

"He doesn't have any," Ron sniggered. Draco turned a little red, considering that it was true.

"Well, we _must_ make that change!" Rhea turned to the 3 who had walked over. "Welcome, we would like to know if you want to come join our happy little group."

"She's a bit too cheery right now," Sabrina explained, a bit embarrassed.

"We kind of noticed, but sure, we'll join you," a tall boy about Ron's height said as he stepped forward.

"We kind of noticed, but sure, we'll join you," a tall boy about Ron's height said as he stepped forward.

"Goody, we're just reeling people in by the dozen, aren't we?" Michelle muttered.

"Don't be such a… house-ist, Michelle!" April giggled.

"What exactly are we doing?" a girl a little taller than Rhea asked.

"We're acting like idiots," Bastet sneered to her.

"Don't be so mean, you house-ist!" Rhea sniggered and threw a snowball at Bastet. Bastet threw one of her own, but Rhea ducked and it hit Draco.

"Er.. goody, now I'm snowy, aren't I?" he smiled a bit.

"Oh, here comes David, hang on," another Slytherin girl looked over and called to her friend.

"Oh, it's only polite that we introduce ourselves!" Rhea smiled at the four Slytherins before her. "I'm Rhea, those are April, Michelle, Lauren, Sabrina, Bastet, Hermione, Justin, Ron, Harry, Cedric, and this is Draco," she said, pointing to them all.

"We already know Malfoy," David raised an eyebrow.

"God, when will you people start calling each other by your first names, it's only polite, you don't have to be so formal," Rhea smiled.

"Sorry, DRACO, then," David sneered at him.

"Really, David, what do you have against me?" Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing at all."

"Stop it, you two! Draco and Harry got over their differences, why can't you?" Rhea asked.

"Draco got over his differences a little… too quickly, if you ask me," David said, looking a bit betrayed.

"Really, stop it!" Rhea hit David over the head.

"Anyways," the boy, who was obviously their leader, cut in, "I'm Jake, this is Lily, and that's Mindy," he put his arm around Lily.

"Well, welcome, sit down and stay awhile, we're letting you into our group, unless you don't want to hang out with us, as most here are Gryffindor," Rhea smiled, her back leaning against Draco's arm.

"Rhea needed some diversity," Justin explained.

"You know, a Ravenclaw here and there, then maybe a Hufflepuff or two, and she'll be happy," Sabrina giggled.

"I believe that she thought Draco would be more comfortable with some of his own kind around," Bastet sneered unhappily.

"Don't make me paint a big red X on your head, you house-ist," Rhea muttered.

"My word!" April hit Rhea.

"Take it as a compliment, El Queero," Bastet glared at April.

"What's with you, you're acting just plain… nasty today," Michelle rolled her eyes.

"He's my problem," Bastet hissed, glaring at Draco.

"Rhea won't let you touch him," Lauren sniggered.

"Yeah, mine," Rhea smirked and hugged Draco awkwardly. Michelle, April, Lauren, and Sabrina all laughed. Rhea let go of Draco then. "You know I'm just kidding."

"I'm sure they believe that," Draco said, running his fingers through his hair. Justin shot a murderous glare at him, but quickly looked away.

"What's this? Looks like Justin's jealous," Lauren teased.

"No I'm not!" he looked at her.

"Yeah, I'm sure he'd rather go out with… Sabrina," Cedric cut in.

"I'm flattered, you two, but really, I'm not attracted to you in any way," Sabrina answered before Justin could say anything.

"Oh, come on, SOMEONE must like him, he is pretty good looking," Mindy admitted.

"The thing is, Justin would never like you because he's also a house-ist. Isn't that sad?" April smirked.

"We'll have to change that soon," Rhea looked at him.

"So Draco, I see you've found yourself a girlfriend. What happened to Pansy?" Jake looked at Draco.

"She happened to Pansy," April, Michelle, Sabrina, Lauren, Hermione, and Draco all said in unison, pointing to Rhea.

"Really?" he raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "What did you do to her?"

"She put a whole in Pansy's arm," Sabrina answered.

"I believe he was asking me, but, yeah, that sounds about right," Rhea told him.

"If you want MY opinion, I think that Rhea thinks Pansy is trying to take her guy," Michelle said.

"He's not her guy," Ron frowned.

"Yet," Lauren finished for him.

"You do know none of us approve of this," George said.

"But why should we care who you date? So we don't, although, he is cuter as a ferret," Fred sniggered.

"Maybe I SHOULD turn him into a ferret," Rhea grinned.

"Maybe you shouldn't.." Draco grumbled.

"A toffee?" Fred offered Draco a candy.

"No, that's quite all right," he pushed Fred's hand away.

"No, no, we insist," George looked at Draco.

"Really, I couldn't," Draco eyed the toffee suspiciously.

"Maybe we should try to turn him into a Gryffindor," Fred looked at George.

"Wouldn't he still be a Slytherin at heart?" George looked at Fred.

"Not with his girlfriend in Gryffindor."

"I guess you have a point. Want to start now?"

"Of course, come on," Fred got up, and George followed him.

"That was queer…" David said.

"Very," Rhea rested her head on Draco's shoulder.

"Doesn't look like Draco's used to that," Cedric sniggered. Draco relaxed his back; they had 5 minutes before class, which was basically where they were at, so they didn't need to get up anytime soon.

"I feel so alone!" April whined. "I should get Brandon up here…"

"He'd be in his 7th year, April," Bastet said flatly.

"So?" April and Sabrina chorused. Sabrina had a boyfriend Brandon's age.

"Is Rhea still single?" Lauren smiled at her. Rhea rolled her eyes.

"Sure doesn't look like it, but you'd have to ask Draco," Lily answered.

Draco looked a little uncomfortable about this, but he said, "It all depends, ask Rhea."

"I think we all know what Rhea would say, am I right?" Lauren looked at all the people around her and then looked to Rhea.

"I don't know, what do you think I'm gonna say, Lauren?" Rhea smiled mischievously and looked at Bastet, who was looking at Rhea like something stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

"I think it's official, you and Draco are now together," she answered.

"Aren't you intelligent, now let's get to class," Rhea stood up, pulling Draco up with her.

"We get to walk 7 feet, then stand in the snow for a long time while our toes get cold, I'm thrilled," David said.

"Maybe we could work with dragons, they would warm us up," Rhea smirked.

"Not in a good way, though. What do you think he's going to make us work with this time, another weird, skrewt-like creature?" Draco asked.

"Hope not," Harry said flatly.

"Maybe we could work with a Pegasus or something," Bastet said.

"They're called flying horses, Pegasus was just the first one," Rhea replied. "Get it right for once, ok? I don't like it when people mess up mythology and legends."

"You're obsessed with mythology, that's why," Lauren smiled.

"So she'd probably be better in this subject than all of us," Jake said.

"I'd be better in this subject than ANYONE is," Rhea smiled.

"Why is that?"

"I grew up with these creatures, they're not so bad once you get to know them. In fact, even dragons aren't always so temperamental."

"She's also El Queero," Bastet muttered.

"Oh shut-up, will you?" Rhea glared at Bastet.

"Touchy, touchy," she smirked. Rhea scowled, then looked at Hagrid, who was standing in front of them, waiting for attention from his students.

The rest of the day went swiftly, with a few shrewd comments to Rhea about Draco from the Gryffindors, but other than that, the day was great. They had four new friends to hang out with, and Rhea was satisfied about that. Draco was, too; he wasn't as uncomfortable with other Slytherins around. He didn't have Crabbe and Goyle following him around anymore, but the four Slytherins they had talked to earlier would be better replacements for him.

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A/N: Ok… er… I have nothing to say, darn… I REALLY need a Beta Reader, 'cause I always miss my mistakes… but if I'm your Beta Reader, I'm good at that, it's just that I've read this SO many times that I don't want to read it again, I've practically got it memorized… oh, the next part will be rated PG13, too, and… here's what you'll find out: Will I decide to be evil, kill Draco, and bring Adam into this? Will Rhea hurt Harry? Will Draco act his age? Will Bastet and Harry act their age? Will Rhea be more evil? Can Rhea sing? Will Rhea drift off into another point of existance? What the hell is up with Rhea's family? *looks for something about Harry* Does Harry look good blond? Uhhh… and here's a fact: Rhea acts silly and pushes Draco in Potions class for "stealing her air" Nyahahahahaha!

A/D: All HP characters belong to J.K.R.


	4. Chapter 04

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Black Velvet – 04

A/N – Sorry it took so long... *hides under a rock* FF.N was acting up all month, and then I kinda forgot about it... So, ummmm.... yeah... enjoy or whatever.

A/D – JKR owns all HP characters. April owns herself. I own Rhea. Michelle owns herself and Bastet's last name. The Coca-Cola company also owns Bastet's last name, which is Dasani. I like Dasani water. Oh well. Liz owns Bastet. I wish I owned Draco. Wow, I'm writing really short sentences...

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"So, what do we do?" Hermione asked boredly, sitting on her bed.

"We have a large number of options, none of them are good," Sabrina replied.

"And then there are the options within the original options," Rhea said.

"I think Rhea's drifted off to another point of existance, she is no longer with us mentally," Lauren sniggered.

"Rhea, beware the aurora borealis," Bastet smirked.

"And the cheesy poofs!" April added.

Rhea smiled, "I fear not the northern lights, nor the unhealthy snack items. My path is clear, and nothing is there to stop me."

April sighed, "Rhea, this is planet Earth, requesting landing."

Rhea smirked, "I don't care about your pathetic little problems."

"Rhea, what do you want to do?"

"I want to go back into my fantasy world-"

"With Draco," Lauren sniggered.

"Maybe," Rhea looked at her.

"I wonder if we went and killed Draco right now if she'd try to stop us," Bastet said irritably.

"Of course I would, you pulled me out of my world, and I'm back again, there's nothing you can do about that, I'm not drifting off again," Rhea answered.

"I think Rhea's mad at us," Sabrina sniggered.

"I have reason to be, but I'm not."

"Good. What do you want to do?"

"I dunno," she looked out the window, the sun was close to setting. "Let's go outside."

"Sounds fine, what are we going to do?" Hermione asked.

"Homework, talk, you know, the usual," Rhea got up and stretched.

"Do you want to get the others?" Lauren asked.

"Sure, why not? Hermione, get Harry, Ron, Justin, and Cedric, will you? Michelle, do you mind getting Draco, Lily, David, Mindy, and Jake?" Rhea asked them all. "We'll all help, Lauren, go with Hermione, and the rest of us will go with Michelle."

"Sounds fine, we'll all meet at the lake in 30 minutes, kay?" Lauren jumped off her bed. Rhea nodded, then went off to find the Slytherins.

They all went down in the dungeons, barely avoiding Snape and Filch, who were patrolling the area, and would suspect something. Sabrina quietly led the way, being the sneak of the group; she was best at it. Rhea followed closely, then the others in a straight line.

"Rhea, go in front, I don't know the way," Sabrina complained in a whisper.

"Fine," Rhea slipped in front of Sabrina and swiftly traveled along the dark corridor. She came to the wall where the Slytherin common room was located. She knocked a few times along the wall before finally coming to a hollow area. She took out a heavy dragon-hide book and slammed it as hard as she could against the wall.

"Open up, Draco!" she called. She slipped her book back in her bag. The wall opened a little and he slipped out.

"What?" he asked, a bit annoyed.

"Come on, we're gonna do our homework outside, it's nice out there," Bastet sneered.

He looked back at the wall. "Ok, hang on," he said as he slipped back in, mumbling the password softly.

"You don't have to be so mean," Rhea glared at Bastet, her frosty blue eyes narrowed.

"Yes I do," Bastet glared back.

"You look hardly intimidating with chestnut-colored eyes," Michelle said dryly.

"Oh, shut-up."

"We don't care about your pathetic little problems, Bastet," April glared at her.

"Bastet, go with April to the library and see if you can find the other four," Rhea said firmly, not wanting to have to put up with them. "Get to know each other and stop arguing," she snapped at Bastet.

"Look who needs to stop being mean," Bastet snapped back, walking off after April.

Draco slipped out again with his bag. "Sorry it took so long, Pansy kept questioning why I had to go so quickly," he said. "Where'd you evil friend and April go?"

"They'll be back, come on, let's go," Michelle said.

"Okee dokey, then," Rhea smirked and led the way back.

They arrived at the edge of the lake a little bit after Hermione and the others did. Bastet and April hadn't returned. Rhea looked up at the sun, which looked like a big orange ball of fire. She took out her wand, melted a large area of snow, dried the area, then sat down in it.

At that point, April and Bastet arrived with the four Slytherins.

"You were right, it is nice out here," Mindy said, looking around. "And you've even dried a spot for us, how nice."

"Come on everybody, sit down! We all take the same classes, except for Hermione, so we should have the same homework," Sabrina pointed out.

"You guys have Divination homework?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, thrilling, isn't it?" Rhea asked. "I have a million ways to die, but can only use one."

"Maybe you should quit and take Arithmancy," Sabrina said.

"No, I'd really rather read your tea leaves and predict your death 96 times!" Rhea giggled.

"Uh oh, let's make her stop before she goes into a giggling seizure!" Lauren exclaimed.

"It's not my fault, but it probably has given me brain damage," she said calming down a little.

"Nobody knooows," April sniggered.

"Yes, I know I have a queer sense of humor," Rhea said to David, who was staring at her.

"That's ok, we do, too," Lily smiled.

"This feels like a gang, we get along together fine, we should think up a name for ourselves," Cedric cut in.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to make ourselves look like a gang-" Hermione started.

"Why not? We have nothing to lose, let's be outgoing," April said.

"I feel like I'm turning into an American," Hermione sighed.

"That's a good sign," Michelle smiled.

"It is?" Draco and Hermione asked together.

"Of course, why wouldn't it be?" Rhea asked.

"I dunno," Draco admitted.

"You're even starting to lose that English accent of yours," Bastet pointed out.

"I think we all are, we've been exposed for too long," Ron sighed.

"Except those four, they haven't been around us long enough," Rhea smirked. "But I think eventually they'll become more American."

"Rhea, I've been thinking, where do we stay over the summer? The Leaky Cauldron gets expensive over a time," Justin turned to her.

"We'll find a place, though, maybe we could even take a trip back to America," she smiled. "And we could bring all these guys, too."

"Sounds good, where are you from?" Harry asked.

"Ohio, but California, Florida, and New York are fine, too," April answered.

Ron looked a bit uncomfortable, "Wouldn't it cost a lot to get us back and forth?"

"We'll use a Portkey," Rhea looked at him.

"Oh, ok then," Ron said, turning slightly pink.

"Rhea has a nice little cottage-" April started to explain.

"It's not a cottage, more like a mansion," Justin cut her off.

"Whatever it is, it's in the open country, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and it came with 3 house elves."

"Abydos is the one we have now, the other two I let free, but Abydos wanted to stay with his wife, who lives in the house, too, I think, but she doesn't work," Rhea said.

"Why doesn't she work?" Draco raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not even sure if she really exists."

"How can you not know if a house elf exists?" Harry asked.

"I've never seen her, I haven't even seen my whole house yet! It has 10 floors and is bigger than you can imagine, it has 2 levels of basement!"

"How long have you had it?" Draco asked.

"It's been in my family for ages, I don't know, but my mother died a year before I was accepted in Buckeye, so I never did get to fully explore it, I was too busy," she answered.

"Buckeye?" Ron asked.

"It was our school, it's named after a tree," Sabrina sniggered.

"A tree?" Jake laughed.

"Yes, the Ohio state tree," Rhea smirked. "A poisonous tree, at that, too."

"A poisonous tree, there's an interesting concept," Lily said.

"There are lots of poisonous trees around Ohio," April said. "We learned about them a few summers ago at camp."

"You just don't really notice them," Michelle said, writing out a transfiguration essay.

David chose that time to start laughing, "Look at us, we're sitting in an area of cleared out snow talking about what we're gonna do over the summer!"

"What the heck, why don't you all just stay at my place over the summer?" Draco sighed.

"Seriously?" Rhea looked at him.

"We might have to turn their hair different colors, cover up Harry's scar, and play with their faces for awhile, though," he smirked, looking at Ron and Harry.

"That's easy," Rhea took out her wand and turned Ron's hair gray. "Oops, meant that to be black," she tried again and succeeded. She waved her wand at Harry, and turned his hair blond and his eyes brown.

"Brown eyes don't go with blond hair, you idiot," Bastet raised an eyebrow.

"I know that," Rhea turned their eye and hair colors back to normal.

"You turned my hair blond.. ick," Harry shuddered.

"What's wrong with blond?" Rhea asked.

"They're usually stuck-up and stupid," Bastet answered.

"Hey!" April, Draco, Lauren, and Mindy all said at once.

"Watch what you say and where you say it, Bastet, especially who you say it in front of," Rhea smirked.

"I was referring mostly to Draco," she answered.

"Hey!" Draco, Michelle, and Rhea all said at once. Harry and Ron sniggered at Michelle and Draco.

"Mine!" Rhea grabbed Draco's arm defensively, looking at Michelle.

"I don't belong to you, you don't own me," Draco said.

"I know that, I'm just joking around," she smiled at him.

"How much of our homework do we have done?" Hermione asked everyone.

"I'm done with Divination, Transfiguration, and our little werewolf essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts," Rhea answered.

"Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration," April, Michelle, Lauren, and Sabrina chorused.

"Potions, Charms, History of Magic, and Herbology," Lily, Mindy, Jake, and David all said.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions," Draco and Bastet said.

"Potions, Herbology, and Transfiguration," Harry, Ron, Cedric, and Justin replied.

"So we're all around the same place, good," Hermione said. "I'm done with Potions, Transfiguration, and Charms. Almost done with History of Magic."

"Now I'm done with Potions, too," Rhea said, putting it in a folder, than sticking it in her bag.

"Help me?" Draco asked Rhea.

"Transfiguration?"

"Yep," he looked disdainfully at his book.

"You idiot, that was easy, you only have to write out how to change a nightstand into an armadillo," Justin said.

"Play to your strengths, Justin, Draco's good at Potions, and you're not, so I wouldn't be talking. You both have good areas," Rhea looked up at him.

"It doesn't take a talent to be mean, your words can crush things that are unseen," April recited.

"Very good, April, now try thinking up something on your own," Bastet replied.

"God, didn't you just listen to what I said?"

"I don't think she did," Mindy said.

Justin looked at Rhea, "Why are you going out with that idiot?"

"Really, Justin, we could care less who everyone dates. Heck, you can date Mindy for all we care!" Michelle glared at him.

"Why don't you go out with David, then?" he retorted.

"No, I don't think David likes me much, anyways, though, do you, David?"

"It all depends on how you look at things," David answered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bastet raised an eyebrow.

"It means he either likes her looks or her attitude, but he wouldn't go out with her because she's Gryffindor," Rhea said, not looking up.

"Don't be a house-ist!" April giggled, and hit him over the head with her wand.

"I don't like being hit over the head, would you stop it?" David complained.

"No, we like picking on you," Jake sniggered.

"No offense to you guys, but these transfiguration books suck," Rhea said.

"They do not! They have just enough information in them!" Hermione argued.

"Either way, I prefer my other book over this one," she said as she pulled out a thick and surprisingly light book with a gold and silver colored cover. "Use this."

"Who's that by?" Hermione asked.

"My mom, she was a writer, also great at transfiguration, she enchanted it to be light as a feather."

"Impressive, was she American?"

"Of course. I was born in this country when my mom was staying with my father for awhile, then she inherited the house and we moved there when I was about 3. My dad was British," Rhea answered her, smiling.

"Was she an only child?"

"Yep, and so am I, therefore I'm a spoiled brat who gets whatever I want! Actually, I own the house now, because my father was killed by Voldemort when I got taken away. I'm surprised that Voldemort actually did something good for once."

"He just took another innocent life," Harry glared at her.

Rhea laughed, "My father was anything but innocent, he took me to Voldemort when he knew I would probably be killed by him."

"I guess."

"You know what really gets me, is that every evil Dark Lord person change their facial features and make themselves look disgustingly ugly. If they're going to take over the world, the least they can do is look good. Almost as bad as Michael Jackson, you know?" Rhea shuddered. Everyone laughed, and Rhea smiled.

"Your mom seemed to know you were going to be in the house of the panther, didn't she?" Draco asked Rhea as he opened the book, which had dark purple writing and ruby-colored chapter headings.

"Yeah, the book's dedicated to me, too. There are 4 books; each dedicated to a member of the family. The other 3 are dedicated to my cousins. They all have the same cover, except with different titles. You're reading Advanced Transfiguration, the most difficult spells and potions are in that, it even has how to become an Animagus," she smiled almost guiltily, her eyes glinting.

"You're not registered, yet, are you, Rhea?" Hermione looked at her, smiling.

"Whatever gave you the idea that I could change into an animal, it IS very difficult, I would expect you to be able to that, if anyone here," Rhea laughed.

"Rhea can turn into a panther," April smirked.

"A panther? Interesting," Lily said.

"Yes, well, she was put in the house of the panther, so it's self-explanatory," Sabrina said. "I was put in the house of the panther, too, but Justin was put in the house of the hawk, and Bastet was put in the house of the cobra."

"I'd rather not talk about it," Bastet said flatly.

"Of course you would, back in the states you kept going on and on about how your team was the best out of the four," Lauren protested.

"Better than yours," Bastet retorted.

"The sharks might not have been the best, but we were better than you," Lauren snapped.

"How did you all become friends if you were in different houses?" Jake asked.

"Our houses weren't so against each other," Michelle answered.

"We each had our own tower, but all our classes were mixed," Rhea explained.

"Some of our classes are mixed, but we still don't get along well," Mindy pointed out.

"Some people you're not meant to get along with at this point, you might later in your life, but not now."

"Kinda like I'm not supposed to get along with Malfoy, but Rhea's trying to force me to," Bastet replied.

"I doubt Draco wants you to get along well with him, Bastet. You absolutely hate each other, I'm not trying to get you to be friends, just call each other by your first names."

"Give it up, I'm never gonna call him by his first name," she glared at Draco.

"Not like I'm gonna call you by yours, you're Rhea's evil friend, I don't find Bastet fitting for you," he sneered.

"Neither do we," Michelle pointed out.

"Idiot," Bastet snarled.

"Look, she's promoted herself to wolf-level! Is she allowed to do that?" April sniggered.

"I don't think she is. Bastet, go back to being your monkey-like self!" Justin joined in.

"Come on! If you're going to gang up on someone, gang up on Malfoy!" Bastet whined.

"He's not fun to insult anymore with Rhea around, she'll just beat our brains out with a hockey stick," Ron said.

"Where the heck did that come from?" Rhea asked.

"I don't think he knows," Harry sniggered.

"Nope, but it probably came from one of you, I must have picked it up, sounds American, doesn't it?" Ron asked.

"I do have a question, though. Rhea, how can you like Draco? He's so… evil!" Harry looked at Rhea.

"Evil would be a good thing, I'm evil, he's evil, maybe we should all become a big evil group of insane people!" Rhea sniggered.

"Why does Harry have a wand?" Michelle asked suddenly.

"Because he's a wizard," Hermione answered, looking at Michelle weirdly.

"I don't trust him with a wand!" Michelle took it away.

"Hey!" Harry looked at her.

"I think Michelle has gone insane. Michelle, hand over the wand," Rhea said slowly.

"Why? I wanna play with it!" Michelle complained.

"Play with your own wand you idiot."

Michelle took out her wand, "You have a very good point," she threw Harry's wand back to him.

"Rhea, I'm not sure if we should trust MICHELLE with a wand at the moment, I think she might need to get some rest, don't you?" Lily laughed.

"Michelle, sit down and stop acting like an idiot!" Rhea glared at her.

"Take me to your leader," Michelle giggled.

"I AM your leader, you idiot," April said.

"Yes, it's either you or me, I'm not sure," Rhea looked at her.

"You keep threatening to turn people into fish, so, obviously you have a knack for getting everyone's attention."

"Heh, yeah," Rhea smirked.

"Do you guys realize how late it is?" Fred and George walked up.

"No, actually, we didn't until you came. Wow, it's dark, isn't it?" Michelle said dumbly.

"McGonagall sent us to get you before Snape took any points from Gryffindor," Fred explained.

"Yes, so come on," George said. All of them stood up and followed Fred and George into the castle.

"It's been a long time since Gryffindors and Slytherins got along with each other," Fred said.

"I don't think McGonagall wanted it to happen, Snape seems to be rather unpleasant about all of this, but Dumbledore didn't seem to care," George continued.

"Basically what we're saying is Gryffindors and Slytherins don't mix well, they never had, and they probably never would, but Rhea, you've seemed to get to them, somehow they don't care what house you're in and you don't care what house they're in."

"Let's say Draco was in Gryffindor. In that case, you wouldn't make a big deal about all of this, but you still are, just because it's not normal. I'm not normal, and I never will be," Rhea said coldly.

"You see, the thing is he's NOT in Gryffindor."

"Would you stop arguing about me, I don't like it much," Draco cut in.

"None of us like them arguing about houses, but there's nothing was can do there," Mindy sighed.

Fred and George smirked and led Rhea and her group up the steps and directed Draco and the other Slytherins down the steps into the dungeons.

He (Draco) walked swiftly along the corridor, his cold eyes alert for anyone who might be lurking down there. He walked past a classroom, but was grabbed by the arm and pulled in. The door shut behind him and Snape turned the lights on.

"Draco, I'd like to speak to you for a few minutes," he said silkily.

"Sure," Draco said, not exactly having a choice. "About what?"

"Your little friends. Sit," he motioned to a desk. Draco sighed and walked over to the desk and sat down in it. Snape sat down at his own. "Karasa may have been a good thing for you, Draco. She's intelligent, that's true, and she's willing to help you with the subjects you don't do well in, but she's Gryffindor. And although she does have good taste in her choice of friends, usually, you shouldn't be around her too much.

"She's a pureblood, I understand that, her family was one of the greatest, until her father came along. But the point is she's in Gryffindor, and you weren't meant to be together. The other four, who she picked out, those are who you should be with. Mindy's a nice girl, why not her?"

"Mindy doesn't even like me much, she's only around me because Rhea chose her and her friends to come sit down with us and her other friends," Draco said.

"Opposites attract, Draco. But Karasa has Potter following her around all the time. She doesn't like him much, does she?"

"No, she hates him."

"Like I said, she may have good taste, but the hat chose her for Gryffindor, it considered her for Slytherin, but she didn't fit in. She didn't like you when you first met her, is that right?"

"She looked ready to kill me the first time I met her in Diagon Alley because I called her a mudblood. The second time was on the train and she slapped me across the face."

"She had reason to, but that's not the point. The point is that she adapts well to the people around her, and gets used to them. That's what happened to you, she got used to having you around."

"She saved my life, Professor."

"Was it out of sympathy or was it because she truly liked you?"

Draco thought about that for a minute. "She said no one deserved it, but she almost burned my wrist off, too," he pulled his sleeve up a little to show the top of his wrist, which had a flame-shaped scar on it.

Snape raised an eyebrow, "She has power, I'll admit that. If she could master fire at such a young age."

"What?"

"She can master fire, that's why it almost burned your wrist off and why you have the flame-shaped scar there. She healed you, correct?"

"Yes."

"Do you care for her as she does you? If she hated you, she would have let the flames turn you into powder."

Draco nodded, "I care for her."

"There's nothing you can do about her if she gets attached. She's dangerous, you don't want to get on her bad side."

Draco smirked a little. "Potter asked her why she liked me, he said I was evil. She said evil was a good thing. And Michelle doesn't trust Potter with a wand," he sniggered. "She took it away from him."

"Her family is known for their transfiguration skills, that's one of the most dangerous subjects, because she can turn you into something small and crush you if she feels like it. Be careful with her, she's still Gryffindor, but you care for her, so there's nothing I can do now. Think about what I said, though," Snape opened the door and let Draco leave.

Rhea sighed and looked out the window. "Look, it's a blizzard!" she cackled.

"Oh, cackeldy cackledy yourself," Bastet said irritably.

"Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology are canceled," Hermione told them.

"Yes, thrilling, isn't it?"

"Very," Rhea sighed and jumped out of bed, her purple satin pajamas ruffling in the slight breeze that always seemed to be in the dorm, keeping it just the right temperature.

"Aren't you cheery today?" April looked at her unenthusiastically.

"It's Friday, of course I am!"

Michelle opened one eye lazily and yawned. It was pretty early, 6 AM, and Rhea was too chirpy and cackley for Michelle. They all got out of bed and changed into their robes.

"I wanna wear dark purple instead of black, I wonder if they'll mind," Rhea looked at her robes.

"Probably," Hermione looked at her, "Although those are dark enough to be accepted."

"Yippee!" Rhea threw them on and combed through her hair quickly.

"All your robes look really tight on you, you know that?"

"I know, they were made that way."

"You like having tight robes?"

"They not tight! They're not loose, but tight is when it gets uncomfortable. These are perfect."

"Rhea likes to show off," Lauren smirked.

"Darn right I do," Rhea smiled at Lauren and put her brush away. She slipped on a necklace with a dark purple butterfly charm on it to match her robes and put 4 thin bracelets on, 2 black and 2 white.

"Draco probably likes you in tight clothes," Sabrina sniggered.

"If he does, great; if he doesn't, too bad!"

"I see you really don't care what your boyfriend thinks of you," Bastet said disapprovingly.

"I am Rhea, hear me... Cackle!" Rhea said, cackling.

"I'm impressed, but don't you have better things to do?" Bastet said sarcastically.

"My homework, but that really doesn't matter, does it?"

"It doesn't unless it's due soon," Hermione looked at her.

"We only have half a day today, right?"

"Yeah, and we only have potions because Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology was canceled."

"We have a weird schedule," Rhea said thoughtfully, looking it over.

"It used to be the same thing everyday at our school," Michelle said.

"Fooooooood," Rhea looked at all of them. "Ready now?"

"I guess," April said as she put her hair up in a ponytail, then put a baseball cap on, slipping her ponytail through the back opening.

"You wear that backwards and you'll look like you're in a gang," Sabrina smirked.

"You just look like the gang-type, you know, Sabrina, dark hair, dark eyes," Lauren smiled.

"And you don't?"

"Not at all, my friend."

"Come on, El Queero," Bastet growled, pulling Rhea.

Rhea slipped out of Bastet's grip. "Follow me, my fellow oddballs," she smirked, ducked under Bastet's arm and ran down the steps, the others following close behind.

"Come, Justin, we're running from Bastet," Rhea smiled and grabbed his wrist, pulling him with her.

"Aren't you just the cheery one today?" Draco said as she ran into him.

"Oh, yes, of course I am, I always am, you should know me by now!" Rhea giggled and ran past him. Draco sighed and spotted Bastet heading his way. He sidestepped her and she ran past him.

"What a pleasant morning with the Gryffindors," Mindy sniggered.

"She could have trampled you, Draco," Jake laughed, watching Bastet.

"No, she would have gotten me by the neck and strangled me," Draco smiled.

"You seem cheery too," Rhea said as she returned, than darted past him, followed quickly by Michelle, April, Lauren, and Sabrina.

"Weirdo," David said, turning his head towards Rhea.

"Isn't this fun," Rhea said sarcastically, grabbing Draco. "Come and join us, Draco," she sniggered as Michelle stumbled over her foot.

"No, that's quite all right," he answered, watching Lauren 'accidentally' setting Cedric's robes on fire.

"What, too violent for you?" April stopped in front of him.

"No, not at all," Lily smirked and pulled Jake into the fray.

"Let's all have fun killing each other in the corridors, then, but maybe this would be better for outside," Rhea said.

"Well, let's get to breakfast, then, shall we?" Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, of course, but I doubt we'll be able to make a refined entrance," Rhea giggled and let go of his arm.

"We'll either make a refined one or a dramatic one, most likely it will start out refined and we'll all end up falling over each other," Hermione laughed.

"Let's make a pathetic attempt to be refined," Draco smiled.

"Why not?" Rhea giggled, and walked into the Great Hall next to Draco, but Bastet tripped over Hermione, who tripped over Harry who had tripped over Lauren because Lauren was prancing around like a fairy.

"Beautiful entrance done by the Gryffindors and some Slytherins," Dumbledore laughed; he had been talking to the rest of the hall. "I'm glad you 16 decided to join us."

"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore," Rhea giggled. Harry glared at her, but just sighed and walked to the Gryffindor table.

"We were discussing the blizzard when you came in," Dumbledore smiled as they took their seats. "As I was saying, there will be no Herbology or Care of Magical Creatures classes today, because they utilize the outdoors. Most of you will only have 1 class today, then have the rest of the day off. No one is permitted outside without permission from Hagrid."

There was a groan from most of the students; it had been beautiful outside the night before. They wondered what could have happened. 

Rhea looked at the food that sat in front of her, she really wasn't hungry. She hardly ever was hungry for reasons unknown to anyone. It was a family thing, they usually didn't eat much.

"What's the matter, Rhea? Not hungry?" Bastet smirked at her. "Or are you just off daydreaming again?"

Rhea glared at Bastet, picked up her wand and threw some jelly in Bastet's face. She smirked and turned away again.

Bastet wiped the jelly off her face, grabbed Rhea's shoulder and spun her around angrily. Rhea smiled and ducked out of Bastet's grip.

"You really MUST learn to control me, Bastet. You don't seem to be enjoying anything I do lately. Why is that? Are you jealous, or are you just ticked off? Maybe you don't like the idea of me dating someone that would probably have represented your house back in the states, but that doesn't make any sense, now does it? I really don't think so. Maybe you should ask yourself what your problem with me is. Wouldn't that be a better solution than trying to kill me?" Rhea said sweetly.

"Rhea, leave Bastet alone, she can't handle herself, so she won't be able to handle you, too," Sabrina sniggered, ducking under Bastet's arm.

"I guess that would be a better idea."

"So do I," April sighed.

Rhea looked at Justin, "What's wrong with you?"

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with him, he just feels like making all of us think that there's something wrong with him," Michelle said.

"We must go, come on," Rhea grinned, picked up her bag, and pulled them all out of the Great Hall gracefully.

"Aren't you the graceful little fairy today," Ron said grumpily.

"I wouldn't consider myself a fairy, but ok, whatever," Rhea answered, leading the way down to the potions class. She arrived next to a crowd of Slytherins, who she didn't want to get to close to.

"Your boyfriend is a Slytherin and you don't want to get near them?" April raised an eyebrow.

"I don't enjoy big clusters of sweaty people."

"Not many people do," Mindy said, pulling David out of the crowd.

"Then what's the point of piling up like that?" Lauren sighed and leaned against the wall next to Cedric.

"There isn't one, they just do because they're a bunch of idiots," Bastet said.

"I'd watch it if I were you, you haven't made a very good first impression on a lot of people, and first impressions are almost everything," Mindy said, glaring at her.

"You just need to get to know me better."

"That's the whole thing, I don't WANT to because you're just gonna keep insulting me like that," Mindy glared at her.

"Can we stop this?" Rhea yelled. Everyone looked at her and stopped moving. "Much better, what's the use of piling up like that?"

The Slytherins shrugged and spread out a little.

"Now we have more air, isn't it great?" Justin said almost sarcastically.

"Aren't you the witty one today," Michelle yawned.

"We're gonna get new partners today," Mindy said, leaning against the wall next to Justin.

"I'm thrilled," Rhea sighed.

"Now Rhea's sad because she won't get to be Draco's partner anymore," April smirked.

"Isn't it tragic?" she pulled Draco over to her. "Alas, I must leave you for one whole class!"

"Yes, Draco, she's always this weird," Lauren said, looking at him.

Draco smirked, "I wasn't going to ask that, I was going to ask who told you that. Only a few people are getting moved."

"Oh goody, I'm one of the select few who gets to be moved," Mindy frowned.

"Who was your partner before?"

"Him, so I guess it's a good thing that I'm getting a new partner," she wrinkled her nose at David, who glared at her.

"You guys really don't like each other much, do you?" Sabrina sniggered.

"Not at all," David said.

"Then why the heck do you hang out together?"

"David is Jake's friend," Mindy said.

"So who's your friend?" Lauren sniggered.

"Lily and Jake, I can't stand David."

"You don't have a boyfriend?" Lauren asked.

"No, not yet at least, I have a few people in mind, but no one seems to like me much," Mindy sighed.

"If someone can like Draco, someone can like you," Ron sniggered. Draco glared at him. Rhea whacked Ron on the head. "Hey! It was just a joke!"

"I'm sure she believes you. Rhea's very protective of her boyfriends, you know," Sabrina laughed.

"Come on," Rhea rolled her eyes and pulled Draco in after her.

Everybody followed them into the classroom and went to their assigned cauldrons with their partners nervously. Professor Snape looked around and got an evil little smile on his face.

"As some of you may have heard, I will be changing your partners. Some of your partners, not all of you will be switched," Snape said, looking around.

Rhea pushed Draco a few feet away from her, causing him to trip over the table and almost lose his balance. Rhea covered her mouth with her hand as she started giggling. All of her friends sniggered.

"Is there a problem, Miss Karasa?" Snape glared at her.

"Draco was taking up my personal space, sir," she bit her bottom lip to stop giggling. Everyone sniggered, knowing that she was going out with Draco.

"How was he doing this?"

"He was stealing all my air," she giggled. Draco rolled his eyes at her and smirked.

"Miss Karasa, don't resort to such violent ways of getting him to move or I'll have to give you a punishment. Throwing people into walls isn't going to make them go away," he looked at all of Rhea's friends, who were also giggling. They calmed down quickly.

"Yeah, don't throw me into walls, it isn't going to make me go away," Draco whispered and smiled at her.

"Actually, it probably would, but you caught your balance before you hit the wall," Rhea whispered and held back another fit of giggles. She watched as Snape quickly switched a bunch of people around, but he kept Draco and her together. Justin was put with Mindy and David was put with Ron. Lily was put with Harry.

They didn't cook anything that class because of the partnering. He collected all of their essays on potions that had jellyfish parts used in them and dismissed them early.

"I think you gave him a headache, Rhea," Lauren giggled.

"Why DID you throw Draco away from you?" April asked.

"We don't get along very well," Rhea had another fit of giggles.

"He knows that's not true, you know, EVERYONE knows about you and Draco," Sabrina said.

"Of course they do, it's kind of obvious," Rhea smiled and stopped giggling.

"Still, Rhea, he was stealing your air? That's pathetic," Lily said. Rhea giggled an answer.

"She IS pathetic," Michelle sighed.

"I'm surprised he didn't take points from Gryffindor or give you a detention for acting like an idiot," Harry said. "He'd probably take 50 points from us if I did that."

"Yeah, you're gonna throw Draco into a wall, then say he was stealing your air, I don't think you're THAT stupid, Harry," Rhea giggled again.

"Rhea, calm down already!" Lauren squeezed the back of Rhea's neck.

"Ouchies, let go of my neck!"

"Take a deep breathe, and let it out slowly," Michelle said.

"I can't if she's holding my neck, you idiot!"

"I'm back again," Draco said, poking Rhea in the back.

"And I'm just getting beaten up today!" she giggled again, slipping out of Lauren's grasp. "I'm free!" she ran behind Lauren and walked next to Draco. "Watch, she's gonna turn around and try to grab me in about 3 seconds," Rhea whispered. Sure enough, Lauren turned and made a grab for Rhea, but Rhea ducked and Lauren tripped over her.

"There, you've seen what happens when you try to catch an idiot," Michelle said.

"Rhea's never done that before, maybe her reflexes have gotten quicker," Lauren sighed.

"Maybe Rhea plays baseball, but I think it's just the British air," April smiled.

"Yes, see, his air is British and mine is American, therefore he WAS stealing my air," Rhea giggled. "Where are we going?"

"Nobody knows, but we do know that wherever we are going, it hasn't been used in a long time," Hermione coughed.

Rhea noticed lots of dust and cobwebs, but obviously the Professors and the Caretaker must know about the area, so why hadn't it been used?

"Why doesn't anybody dust?" Michelle asked.

"Who knows, maybe it's a secret hallway or something," Justin sighed.

"Most likely, yeah," Harry said.

"I've never really noticed THIS hallway before," George said looking over Harry's shoulder.

"How is it that you two always seem to pop out of nowhere?" Rhea asked them.

"We figured out how to aparate on school grounds," Fred sniggered. "Actually, you weren't really heading anywhere in particular, and you walked through a wall, so we figured that you must have discovered SOMETHING that wasn't on the map."

"Maybe if you don't believe it's here or if you don't know it's here than it doesn't show up," Hermione said.

"Maybe I'm just special," Rhea sniggered.

"Actually, we probably just didn't notice that we were about to walk into a wall," Jake said.

"I happen to do that a lot, you know, just walk straight into a wall. If this was our school, I would probably be locked in a room or something."

"Yes, the doors lock on you sometimes," Bastet smirked

"That only happened to me, though!" she frowned and took out her wand. "Alohomora," she sighed, unlocking the door in front of them.

"The reason that Rhea's so good at wand-work is because the doors kept locking on her," April explained. "Sometimes they would open with a simple charm, sometimes they wouldn't. Of course, if she were a panther, she could just knock the door down."

"Yes, but sometimes they turned into walls and hid from me!" Rhea smiled.

"Hey, is it just me, or do we need to get everyone in our group hooked up with someone? Our single ones are Mindy, David, Justin, Michelle, Harry, Ron, Bastet and Hermione. Let's see, Mindy, take your pick!" Lauren said.

"What the heck possessed you to say that?" Rhea giggled.

"Actually, I already did have someone in mind," Mindy blushed a little.

"Let me take a wild guess and predict who will be with who this summer. Harry will be with Bastet; Justin will be with Mindy, let's see, Ron and Hermione or Ron and Michelle? David and Hermione or David and Michelle?" Rhea looked at the four.

"The most likely is Ron with Hermione and David with Michelle," April said thoughtfully.

"Me with Bastet? Are you insane?" Harry sniggered.

"Of course I am, but actually, Bastet seems to be flirting with you quite a bit," Rhea laughed.

"Idiot," Bastet glared at her.

"Who, me? No, I'm happy with my prize, much better than Harry," Rhea smiled. "No offense or anything," she added quickly, looking away from Harry.

"Draco, you're HERS now, and that's how you will be referred to most of the time. RHEA'S boyfriend, or RHEA'S husband. It's never DRACO'S girlfriend or DRACO'S wife," Sabrina said.

"What makes you think we're gonna get married, isn't it a little too early to tell?" she frowned.

"Not the way you love him. I'd say you're almost obsessed, actually."

"I know something that Bastet's obsessed with. Draco's money," Rhea said. "Or the money he's expected to inherit if he doesn't die."

"You know, there's a whole 5000 page book on the evilness of his family," Bastet said.

"Like I said before, and will say again, even if Draco WAS evil, evil can be a good thing."

"It CAN, but it usually ISN'T!"

"Well it would be if Draco was evil," Rhea said. "Let's go do something…"

"Like…?" April asked.

"I dunno, something."

"Ok... whatever you say, but I'm the one who gets whatever she wants."

Rhea rolled her eyes.

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A/N – Ok, I'm in a strange mood and there's nothing anyone can do about it. I would like to thank the sponsors that I don't have and I will now advertise things that I am not sponsored by. Or something like that. Go buy SR-71's CD and then Our Lady Peace's CDs... all 4 of them! *cackles and runs in circles, then falls over* And Tonic and Matchbox 20 and Third Eye Blind and Three Doors Down and Pink Floyd and Savage Garden and Vertical Horizon and then at least one of Sugar Ray... *takes a deep breath, then continues to ramble*

A/D – JKR owns all HP characters. Me and my friend own all the original characters except for April, who happens to own herself, thank you very much. Now I will ramble on about books instead of music; Dracula is pretty good, and so is the Voyage of the Basset series (each book is by a different author), and so on and so forth. Yadda yadda yadda. *sighs* The sign said 'Yoga Class for Cats'. Make what you will of that, it's by Our Lady Peace. Nyahahaha! Oh, BTW, for those of you reading the Raven fic... I'm working on it, but my humorous talent (what talent?) has drained from me for the time.


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